1901] Davenport, — Notes on New England Ferns 225 
Arkansas, in March (1901). This specimen appears to be much less 
cut than a careful examination shows it really to be, the deep oblique 
incisions being very fine and close, but I have not hesitated to refer 
it to the variety as all of its other characters are those of var. Hor- 
tonae. 
There is really nothing surprising in the finding of this form at 
stations so far apart, as, given plenty of A. ebeneum, and spore dis- 
semination for factors, there is no reason why similar variations 
should not follow spore germination wherever the species abounds. 
It is not to be expected that in all cases the result should be 
mechanically identical, as if made by dyes, but considerable diver- 
gence is to be looked for. In my own plants, now under cultivation, 
some of the fronds are beautifully frilled, and feather like in appear- 
ance, the incisions being very deep, with the oblique lobes crowded 
closely together and overlapping one another in a more or less 
imbricated manner, while the rachises are somewhat flexuose and 
the lamina gracefully curved. 
In some more highly developed fronds, from Mrs. Horton the 
incisions are more open, and some of the pinnae are conspicuously 
pinnatifid to the centre with the lobes strongly incised, and the hal- 
bert-shaped basal ones broadly and deeply pinnatifid, so that the 
frond is bipinnatifid. 
Mrs. Horton notices that in the taller fronds the stalks just 
above the base are exceedingly brittle, and break off easily much 
after the manner of the Woodsias. 
So far this variety has shown no signs of fruiting and is to be 
regarded as a sterile form, bearing a somewhat similar relation to the 
normal form of the species as var. cambricum does to Polypodium 
. vulgare. 
MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS. 
