Ferns of Hardin County, Kentucky

Abstract

Hardin County, one of the largest counties of the State, is situated in north-central Kentucky. Its fern flora is no doubt more or less typical of many other counties. The original county, formed in 1792, exceeded in size the State of Delaware, and from it have been carved in whole or in part thirteen present counties. It is easily accessible, being traversed by the main lines of the Louisville & Nashville and the Illinois Central Railroads and bordering the Ohio River on the north. The Dixie Highway, spanning the country from north to south, and the Central Highway, from east to west, cross each other in the countyseat, Elizabethtown, some twenty-five miles northeast of which is My Old Kentucky Home, where Stephen Collins Foster wrote the famous song of that name; while half as far to the southeast is the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, now a national shrine, and twice as far to the south is the Mammoth Cave, one of the natural wonders of the world. Topographically, Hardin County may be divided into three characteristic sections: Muldraugh's Hill in the northern part, a continuation of the chain of scenic hills known in Indiana as The Knobs; the barrens in the central part, and undulating plains in the southern part. On the high points of Muldraugh's Hill is a thin formation of Warsaw rock and lower down the eroded sides sandstones, shales and limestones, with frequent wetweather springs and waterfalls. Passing to the south from Elizabethtown one encounters a cherty limestone of the St. Louis group, which disintegrates easily, forming a somewhat reddish but productive soil that enters largely into the once noted wheat-lands. A large portion of the surface rock of the county is sub-carboniferous and fre91