Abstract
Last October I spent a week-end in St. Mary's County, Maryland, along the lower Potomac River. While walking along a woodland road I noticed a fringe of Ebony Spleenwort growing on the low bank at the edge of the road. Among the plants was a fern that I took at first glance to be another species. A closer inspection, however, showed it to be an unusually luxuriant plant of Ebony Spleenwort, with fronds more dissected than is characteristic of any of the named forms or varieties. The plant was growing in the Gum-Pine association common to this section, in which the dominant species are Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styracifua) and Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda). Associated plants were Ilex opaca, Myrica cerifera, and Quercus rabra (Spanish Oak), with an undergrowth of Vaccinium, Gaylussacia, and other plants. The soil, locally called white oak soil because of its extreme hardness, is known as Leonardtown loam, a form in which clay predominates.
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