This sweet, unspoiled, preprofessional atmosphere, ruled by a sense of adventure and wonder rather than by egoism and a lust for priority and fame, still survives here and there, it seems to me, in certain natural history societies, whose quiet yet essential existences are virtually unknown to the public. One such is the American Fern Society, which holds monthly meetings and occasional field trips—“fern forays”—of one sort or another.
