37 
the forests of Costa Rica and sent by him to the U. S. National 
Museum, whence they were forwarded to Mr. Baker for determina- 
tion.  Gleichenia intermedia, Adiantum Cooperi, Polypodium 
percrassum and P. aspidiolepis, spp. nn., are described. 
Fasciation in Ailanthus and Sumach. W. T. Davis. (Proc. 
Nat. Sci. Assoc., Staten Island, Dec. 11th, 1886.) 
After some general remarks on fasciation, with reference to 
Dr. Master’s work, Mr. Davis said: 
“T have observed in my rambles that fire is the chief cause 
of fasciation in ailanthus and sumach (Rhus glabra), but it does 
not appear to have been mentioned as a producer of this de- 
formity. 
‘‘ Along the stone wall on the property of the Sailors’ Snug 
Harbor, the vegetation has been burned for several years, the 
dead stalks standing thick among the summer’s growth. After 
the fire in the spring of 1885 many of the young ailanthus trees 
became fasciated, the adhesion of branches numbering four and 
five in some cases, and I counted over twenty good specimens of 
these deformed stalks in quite a small area, I noticed also that 
most of the young trees had lost their cylindrical outline and had 
become extremely angular, though after a whole summer's 
growth they failed to develop a fasciated stalk. On the other 
side of the wall, where there had been no fire, the ailanthus trees 
were entirely normal. In the spring of this year these bushes 
and young trees were again subjected to the influence of fire, 
and as the summer proceeded I noted a new growth of deformed 
ailanthus trees and also a number of fasciated sumach stalks. 
“Early this spring I discovered a locality in the vicinity of 
Richmond where the blackened stems of the sumachs showed 
plainly that there had been a fire, and in the summer the leaves 
as well as the stalks became fasciated. Other leaves, though 
normal in shape and showing signs of adhesion, were much en- 
larged. The flowers growing on these fasciated stalks, which are 
also for the most part deformed, are not borne in a single head, 
but extend a long way down the branch, intermixed with the 
leaves. This fact seems to prove more conclusively that the ad- 
hesion of many branches and not the expansion of one, is the 
true theory of fasciation. 
