2 Rhodora [ JANUARY 
Its lines of variation are, it is true, in the direction of a natural 
disposition on the part of even typical forms to become more or less 
serrated, but in the present instance this has been carried so far in 
the oblique incisions and lobings, and overlapping of the segments, 
that the normal form is completely lost sight of and in those fronds 
with closely imbricated pinnae the whole lamina has a beautifully 
frilled appearance that suggests some forms of Asplenium lunulatum, 
Swartz. 
Coarsely serrated fronds of 4. ebeneum are not infrequently found, 
especially in some of the highly developed southern forms with the 
pinnae conspicuously lobed, and a very remarkable form was collected 
in Maine several years ago by Miss Kate Furbish, but nothing like 
the present form, in which the change is so great as to render the 
plant almost unrecognizable, has ever been recorded. 
Mrs. Horton is to be congratulated on so interesting a discovery, 
and it is to be hoped that she may be rewarded still further another 
season by finding fertile fronds. To judge from the plants already 
received this form must have been in existence several years, as the 
annual growth and decay are easily traced on the rootstock. I owe 
to the courtesy of Dr. Robinson the privilege of publishing this 
account as he placed in my hands the original specimen, received 
from Mrs. Horton, to whom I am also under obligations for an 
additional supply of necessary material. I am likewise indebted 
— and the readers of RHODORA no less so—to Miss Margaret 
Slosson for her kindness in preparing the plate which illustrates this 
account.! 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 22. — Asplenium ebeneum, var. Hortonae; fig. 1, 
habital sketch; fig. 2, scale from base of stipe (magnified); fig. 3, lower 
pinna; fig. 4, one of the principal pinnae. Var. serratum, Gray in litt. and in 
herb. Davenport (Mass. Hort. Soc. 1872); fig. 5, a pinna from the original 
specimen collected by myself in 1872. Asplenium ebeneum (typical); fig. 6, 
a normal pinna. 
MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS. 
1 The name Asplenium eóeneum was first published by William Aiton in Hortus 
Kewensis, Vol. III. p. 462, London, 1789, with the following description '* fronde 
pinnata: pinnis lanceolatis subpaleatis serratis basi auriculatis, stipite laevissimo 
simplici” The date usually assigned for this publication is 1793, but the imprint 
on the title page of the copy in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Library 
is 1789. 
