244 Rhodora [Dbczmbsx 



than when the plants grew beside the pond. The place has been 

 fenced in ever since and used either for hens or pigs or both, and yet 

 through all this time to the present day the plants have continued to 

 thrive. 



I first saw this Button-bush on the Philbrook Farm in the summer 

 of 1882. It was growing in a thick clump, some four feet high, the 

 bushes were in full Sower and the hens sought shelter from the hot 

 sun under the shady brandies. The next time I saw the plants was 

 in October of the present year, fifteen years since my last visit. On 

 repairing to the spot I found the conditions in no wise changed. 

 The little yard was still there, fenced in as formerly. Fifteen 

 little pigs and some hens were roaming about the enclosure. There 

 on one side within a space thirty-three by tw T enty-eight feet in extent 

 grew the Button-bush. I counted as many as seventy stems rising 

 above the ground which was dry and hard as formerly, and packed 

 closely about the plants by the many feet of the strange companions 

 of these water-loving shrubs. They were from three to seven and 

 one half feet in height, and were setting a good crop of fruit. Mr. 

 Philbrook who has kindly given me the early history of this plant 

 says that the roots are at least six feet below the surface of the 

 ground, but that at that depth the soil is always wet in this particu- 

 lar locality. In this respect only does the plant in any degree 

 follow the normal habit of the species. The shoots of the Button- 

 bush are not so numerous as they were a few years ago, but this is 

 due to the fact that they receive pretty hard treatment from the pigs 

 that root about the stems and rub continually against them. The 

 hens also pick at the young shoots within reach. Still for thirty- 

 seven years under these unnatural conditions have the plants flour- 

 ished and, if unmolested, there seems to be no reason for putting any 

 limit to their vitality. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



A CRISTATE FORM OF NFPHRODIUM MARGINALK. 

 F. G. Floyd. 



Very few of our New England ferns have been found crested. 

 Perhaps this is partially accounted for by the fact that this phase of 

 abnormal growth is a branch of fern study that has not, until quite 

 recently, interested American collectors. That these cristate varie- 



