aaah te Oo Pe ae a aS 
283 
vidual occurs,” for “ precise spot upon which the individual was 
collected.” 
On motion of Dr. Britton, a committee consisting of Messrs. 
Coville, Beal and Fernow was appointed to discuss the matters 
brought up by the paper, and report before the close of the 
session. 
2. “Travels in Paraguay and its Flora,” by Thomas Morong. 
The speaker gave a brief account of his two years’ experience 
in Paraguay, stating that a complete account of the botanical re- 
sults of his trip would soon be published. 
Dr. Rusby called the attention of the Club to the dangers that 
had surrounded Dr. Morong in his travels. 
3. “A variety of Polypodium vulgare, L., new to America,’ 
by L. M. Underwood, 
In the autumn of 1890 my attention was called to a peculiar 
“crispy” fern, growing on ‘Mohawk Mountain, Connecticut, by 
Mrs, T. R. Waite, of New Haven, who had spent several sum- 
mers on the summit of the mountain in the log cabin established 
there for tourists. The plant proved to be a variety of Polypo- 
dium vulgare hitherto unknown in this country, but described 
from England as var. Cambricum. The plant is easily recognized 
by its deeply pinnatifid pinne, which are strongly in contrast 
with the normal entire pinnz of typical forms of the species, 
This discovery is rendered more interesting by the announce- 
ment of the “State Botanist” of New York* of a second Euro- 
pean variety of this same species. Unlike var. cristatum, as 
figured by Peck and shown in the specimens kindly communi- 
cated by him, the specimens of var. Cambricum, as found on 
Mohawk Mountain in August, 1890, and again in J uly, , 1891, 
Were entirely sterile, not even showing rudimentary sori. The 
plants were growing on the sloping face of the granitic rock of 
which the mountain is composed, in small patches thoroughly 
entangled with plants of normal Polypodium vulgare. Beee 
ment is, therefore, not the cause of the variation in this instance, 
but it must be attributed rather to an inherent tendency to be 
Something different. It is a question of interest to know just 
when to recognize a form of this kind as a true botanical variety. 
*XLIV Reg. Report, plate I. 
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