266 
least do no harm to remember this posibility when examining the 
facts. THoMAS MEEHAN. 
GERMANTOWN, OcT. 16. 
§ 265. Rediscovery of Shortia.—In examining a package of 
plants from Mr. M. E. Hyams, of Statesville, North Carolina, I had 
the extreme happiness of finding a specimen of SHORTIA GALACI- 
FOLIA, Gray. This discovery is confirmed by Prof. Gray, who has seen 
the only two specimens yet found. The plant was discovered last 
year in McDowell Co., N. C., by Mr. H.’s son, alad of about thirteen 
years. This re-discovery of a plant so rare that heretofore only one 
known specimen existed, that at the Jardin des Plantes, in Michaux’s 
herbarium, which is preserved there, is certainly one of the most im- 
portant botanical discoveries of the age. Mr. Hyams expects to 
gather the plant another season, and will probably have speci- 
mens for sale at a reasonable price. J. W. Concpon. 
§ 266. Aspidium marginale, Swartz.—I have found in several 
localities in this State forms of a fern which do not agree with any 
_ description of A. marginale, Sw., that I have seen, and yet resemble 
it in manner of growth and general appearance of fruit ; so I sug- 
gest the propriety of regarding it as a distinct variety. I submit the 
following description : : 
Stipe 17-3” long, with copious tuft of lanceolate ferruginous 
scales at the base; frond 4’-6’ long, 14-3’ wide, once pinnate with 
lower pinnae deeply pinnatifid, upper merely lobed. Sori usually 
one at each sinus, rarely two, one on each side of pinnule, James- 
ville, N. Y.; Stockbridge, N. Y.; Chittenango Falls, N. Y., growing 
on limestone cliffs. Specimens have also been sent me from Wor- 
cester, Mass. ‘Two mature specimens in my collection, fully fruited, 
are only five and one-half inches above the rootstock. 
Lucien M. UNDERWOOD, 
Cazenovia, N. Y., Oct., 1878. 
§ 267. Ferns of New York State.—Mr. Benjamin D. Gilbert, in 
the Utica Herald of October 18th, in a notice of Mr, Williamson’s 
“Ferns of Kentucky,” writes as follows : 
An examination of this volume naturally suggests a comparison 
of the Kentucky ferns with those of our own State. Mr. William- 
son describes 41 species and varieties, of which two have not as yet 
been found in his State, but are included because a more thorough 
search will be likely to discover them there. One of these is the 
very rare Cheilanthes tomentosa, Link, a native of both Tennessee 
and North Carolina, not far from the borders of Kentucky. The 
other is Woodsia Ilvensis, R., Br., which, although belonging farther . 
north, the author thinks may possibly occur among the mountains of 
Kentucky. ‘This fern is common in New York State, growing upon 
ledges of rock. One other fern, Aspidium cristatum, Swartz, is placed 
in the book on the authority of a young lady who reported it from a 
single locality, although Prof. Hussey afterward searched the locality 
named without success. This fern also grows in New York State, 
and is met with frequently in swamps, both in the Mohawk valley 
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