118 



O 



"The stipe of this species is solid and quite terete, and always ex- 

 ceeds in length several times the breadth of the lamina. The latter is 

 strong, and as thick as in a plant of Z. saccharina, Lam. of the same 

 length; is not at all wrinkled, and, with the exception of a short 

 tapering at the base and apex, is absolutely linear, the edges for the 

 whole length being as perfectly true as if cut by machinery. 



-I found this plant growing at a place known as Fox Island (though 

 it is not an island) near the mouth of the Kennebec. The w^hole rock, 

 from a short distance above low water mark to an unknown depth, 

 was completely covered with it, no other Laminaria growing with it. 

 All the other rocks in the neighborhood were covered by either Z. 

 saccharina, Lam., or Z. longicriiris, De la P., and I saw none of this 

 plant among them. I also found a few fronds of Z. dennafodea, De 

 la P., cast up by the waves ; but I saw no specimens that seemed in 

 the least to connect the new form with any other species. 



Maiden. Mass. 



Frank S. Collins. ■ 



94. PhegopterisDryopteri?, Fee.— Isnot Hampshire Co., W. 



Va., a much more southerly station for this fern than has been yet 



reported? In June last it was growing finely and profusely on the 



right bank of New Creek, two miles above the junction with the 

 Potomac. 



John Donnell Smith. 



Baltimore., Oct. 27. 



95. A Viviparous Grass.~Mr, E. S. Wheeler has kindly sent 

 me from Berlin, Mass., specimens of "^Phleum pratense, L., in which 

 the changed appearance of the spike is so complete and so great that 

 It would puzzle any one but an expert agrostologist to decide posi- 

 tively as to the species. Speaking of the metamorphoses of the floral 

 organs of grasses into leaves, Dr. Masters ( Veg. TerafoL, p. 163) says : 



In these cases it generally happens that the outermost glumes are 

 changed ; sometimes, however, even the outer and inner paleae are 

 wholly unchanged, while there is no trace of squamulae or of stamens 

 and pistils within them, but in their place is a small shoot with min- 

 iature leaves arranged in the ordinary manner." The changes in the 

 PhleuiH under consideration come under none of these categories, but 

 agree, rather, with those observed by fMohl in a viviparous state 

 of Poa alpina, L.— a study of which, in its various stages, led him to 

 the conclusion that the inferior palet is but a bract from whose axil 

 the floral axis takes rise, and not, as Brown had theorized, a perian- 

 thial leaf. In the Phlaun sent me by Mr. Wheeler, every one of the 

 mfenor palets has been transformed into a perfect leaf, with its la- 

 mina, hgule, and sheath ; the latter proceeding from a joint on the 



n *f " ^\^ fiV ^^ ^''^'^^'^^'^^ C<K, (P^ 33\ this same form is said to be occasion- 

 ally abundant late in tlie season, on Stateu Island. 



uaryffsTs. ^^ '^^-" '^"'' ^^"'■' ^'*''- ^^•' P" '^'^' ^'"'''^ Botanhc),e Zcilun^r, Jan- 



