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Ferns of the Coastal Plain Lin Dunbar Ferns of the Coastal Plain restricts its coverage area to the coastal plains of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. However, most of the species it covers also occur elsewhere.The volume begins with an introductory section that describes fern structure, life cycles, and identification. Next come the individual species accounts, arranged by frond type - simple, one-cut, twice-cut, and thrice-cut. Each account includes one or more detailed line drawings and a description of the species' identifying characteristics. But what really sets this book apart is the treatment of medicinal uses and folklore. Some species - particularly the less common or more obscure ones - haven't attracted much attention or use. For those that have, Dunbar goes into sometimes considerable detail; the entries for bracken and southern maidenhair fern are particularly interesting. Though somewhat limited in geographic scope, the wider range of most of the included species and the emphasis on the ethnobotany of ferns makes this a very worthwhile addition to any fern library. M. Habeck Ferns of the Coastal Plain: Their Lore, Legends, and Uses by Lin Dunbar, illustrations by John Norton University of South Carolina Press 165pp. Index. 1989. ISBN 0872495957 |
