21 



Mr. Henry Booth, has now had the good fortune to find another 

 plant of the same species in the limestone region of Saugerties, in 

 Ulster County, 



The plant was found on the 15th of November, i88i, growing in 

 a clump of Campiosorus, 



Mr. Lown writes that the limestone-loving ferns Asplefiium Rtita- 

 muraria and Pellaea atropurpurea were plentiful in the vicinity, but 

 that there was no ebeneum nearer than fifteen feet. That distance, 

 however, is plenty near enough (as, indeed, a much greater distance 

 would be), to admit of the intermixture of spores, and consequent 



hybridization, if to that source the origin of ebenoides is really to be 

 attributed. 



In the specimens previously recorded, 'Mr. Lown described the 

 venation as being more or less anastomose. This is the case in the 

 frond which I received from Mr. Lown at that time, and also in at 

 least one of my specimens from Alabama ; but in the present plant 

 the venation is everywhere free, while the i:»lant itself looks very 

 much like a form of ^./////?^//;fi//;;2 (a species not yet, but which 

 ought to be, found within the limits of New York State) with black 

 stipites, the tips of the fronds being less prolonged than usual. 



It is to be hoped that some one, with means and opportunities for 

 investigation, will yet be able to settle the question of this fern's 

 origin ; for, while the evidence is strongly in favor of the hybrid 

 theory, it is by no means conclusive. 



In view of the possibility of such an investigation the following 

 points are presented here as having an important bearing upon the 

 question : 



I. — In every instance thus far, wherever ebenoides has been found, 

 Camptosortis and Asplenium ebeneum have both been present. 



2. — The affinity of certain characters possessed in common by 

 ebenoides and Camptosorus — the prolonged, attenuated proliferous 

 apices, anastomosing venation (Bulletin /. ^.), and now the signifi- 

 cant position in which Mr. Lown found his last plant — point to 

 Camptosorus as the mother plant ; while, on the other hand, certain 

 characters possessed in common by ebenoides and Aspleniiun ebeneum 

 the deeply pinnatifid, sometimes nearly, or quite pinnate (at least 

 below) laminae, and ebeneous stipites — point to the latter species as 

 the probable source from which hybridization proceeded : the infer- 

 ence from these facts, and the constant presence of A. ebeneum and 

 Camptosorus being that the prothallus of some Camptosorus had be- 

 come fertilized from the prothallus of an ebeneum^ resulting in the pro- 

 duction of a hybrid combining in itself the characters of both spe- 

 cies. 



3. — The extremely variable and irregular form of ebenoides— ^t 



often grotesque variation appearing as the result of two opposing in- 

 ternal elements struggling for the mastery — is exactly what might be 

 expected from the hybridization of the two ferns mentioned. 



Aspidium Filix-mas^ Swz., in Arizona, — The discovery of Chei- 

 Ia?ithes iomentosa, Link., Aspidium patens, Swz., and Woodwardia 

 radicans. Smith, in Arizona, by Mr. C. G. Pringle, has already been 

 recorded in the Bulletin for August, 1881 ; I am now able to record 



