Old-Timey Fern Guidebooks

Many of you probably appreciate the importance of a good field guidebook, one that is well-illustrated, with the most up-to-date taxonomic information and keys to help you identify unknown entities, as well as tips for telling apart similar-looking species. For guides that we actually plan to take out in the field, in general more-recent is probably better. But I have a special fondness for old field guides for ferns. The main reason, I suspect, is the illustrations. Until the glossy 2nd edition Peterson guide came along, most fern books were exclusively hand-illustrated, and the detailed drawings are lovely. I also appreciate these books because I've seen numerous references by authors in the older fern literature to particular guides that kindled their passion for these plants. I'll just mention a few favorites that I've either bought or covet. PDFs of them are available online through various wonderful sources, like GoogleBooks or the Biodiversity Heritage Library (and clicking the book titles here will take you to one of those two sites; the images are taken out of the PDFs of each book provided at either GoogleBooks or the BHL).

I came across one old reference recently and was inspired to track down and purchase a copy of the book it referred to: W.I. Beecroft's Who's Who Among the Ferns (New York, 1910: Moffat, Yard & Co.). It's pocket-sized, meant for use in the field, and the illustrations are wonderful. Here's an example, a drawing of what is now called Dryopteris cristata:

At the other end of the size (and price, unfortunately for me) spectrum is Edward J. Lowe's 8-volume Ferns: British and Exotic, which was published between 1856 and 1870. The illustrations in this book are stunning, and it includes both black and white and color drawings, like this one of Osmunda cinnamomea. Lowe apparently wrote a series of books about British ferns and "fern allies", judging from the selection of his works that comes up in a search of GoogleBooks. It's really a treasure to have them available this way!

Last but not least, this one is at the top of my to-acquire list: How to Know the Ferns, by Frances Theodora Parsons (New York, 1915: Scribner & Sons). It was written by a women, which is uncommon and wonderful, and has a charming photo at the beginning, of her studying a polypody-covered rock. The other page shown here is from the section on Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides.

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This brief listing doesn't even scratch the surface of wonderful old fern guidebooks, and PDFs of these and many more can be found online now simply by exploring OpenLibrary, GoogleBooks, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and other similar sites. I encourage you to take advantage of these fantastic resources! It's a nice way to prepare for spring.

Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks

I was scandalized last week to learn that for the several years now, an amalgam of two of my favorite things has existed and I knew nothing about it. In 2005 (that's three years ago!) Oliver Sacks, an author most dear to my heart, published this slim volume entitled Oaxaca Journal, a chronicle of  — wait for it — a ten-day fern foray he joined in 2000 to Oaxaca, Mexico. Organized by the American Fern Society, the foray was exactly what it purported to be: a group of pteridophyte enthusiasts searching out plants in the fern-rich environs of Oaxaca. Sacks is a self-professed life-long lover of ferns, and has been a member of the New York chapter of the Fern Society for many years. Needless to say, the moment I discovered this book existed, I ran out and bought a copy. The journal is typical of his wonderful, engaging writing style, and I highly recommend it as a short, highly enjoyable, and very affordable ($8.76 from Amazon.com) read. 

Peterson Fern Guide

As spring is upon us here in the Midwest and the ferns are starting to emerge, I thought I'd mention the Peterson Field Guide to Ferns by Boughton Cobb, Elizabeth Farnsworth, and Cheryl Lowe, which is my go-to guide for ferns in the field. It covers Northeastern and Central North America and is a pretty exhaustive catalog of the species to be found in the region. The book has keys for ferns in general and then for each genus, and a black-and-white drawing of each species. There are also color photographs of the most common members of each genus, although I wish there were more of these (color photos, not common species, although that would also be nice...); often I find these more helpful than line drawings for identifying things.

This is a great book to use in the field, but it's important to note that it often asks you to look at characters such as rhizome habit or the lowermost pinna pair along a frond, so it isn't the best if you're trying to identify a pressed specimen or an individual frond you find lying along a roadside. But if you're out in the woods and come across a living plant you can't identify, this is a great book!

The Fern Lover's Companion

I recently found an ebook of George Henry Tilton's 1923 The Fern Lover's Companion: A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada, which you can download for free here. It's a very beautiful guide and contains lots of illustrations and black-and-white photographs. Some of the taxonomic information is out of date, but it is nonetheless very interesting. It contains some little gems, including a key to the species of Botrychium which explains some of the superstitions associated with the genus:

"Horses that feeding on the grassy hills,

Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels,

Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home

Their master musing where their shoes be gone."   

Among other things, the moonworts were thought to be capable of unshoeing any horse that walked on them, and of unlocking any lock they touched. This book is full of things like that and well worth perusing.