548 
«J have always wished to botanize in North Elba on the sand 
plains and along their swamps. The sand is nearly white in some 
places and curiously énough there are heavy forests of deciduous 
trees there as well as some of larch and stunted Balsams. I en- 
close all the specimens of Ophioglossum 1 happen to have at pres- 
ent. The smallest are very poor ones, for which you may blame 
our growing village which runs streets into the very hiding places 
of our shyest plants, MJitella nuda, Antigramma, and this small 
fern nestling in the grass. I might, perhaps, have given you bet- 
ter ones. There is one more form of it which I wished you to 
see with the rest, where the frond is thick and clumsily shaped as 
if unfinished. It seems to lack the delicacy and grace of other 
ferns in a remarkable degree. The North Elba specimen is the 
first Ophioglossum 1 ever sawand I found buttwo. The specimens 
from Glens Falls are poor, as the ground having been constantly 
travelled over in consequence of a street being opened.” 
The small, immature specimen from North Elba has a broad 
oval frond, 2 cm. long by 1 cm. wide, and agrees with the 
broadest of the small ones collected by Dr. Gray. The speci- 
mens from Glens Falls are five in number; the tallest of them is 
11 cm. in height with a fertile spike and pedicel 7 cm. long, and 
they resemble fruiting specimens of O. arenarium. She also sent 
Mr. Leggett a large specimen of O. vulgatum from Elizabethtown, 
N. Y., and she says she has found it more common than she ex- 
pected. 
Various intermediate stages of young O. valgatum have been 
found in the collections examined. One of these dwarfed speci- 
mens was collected by Prof. Eaton at Brattleboro, Vermont; 
it is mounted with seven others, grading up in size to the normal 
form. Mr. Canby had one small specimen collected at Gilmanton, _ 
New Hampshire, by Joseph Blake, and two others from Norway, 
Maine, collected by S. I. Smith, which are much smaller than — 
normal. Prof. Engelmann had specimens collected by E. Durand 
at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1853, with small lanceolate fronds, © 
most of the plants, however, were immature; and Mr. Newlin _ 
Williams has collected in low damp woods with Hadenaria lacera, 
at Solebury, Bucks Co., Pa., two specimens which are taller and 
larger than O. arenarium, but have the lanceolate leaves and nar- 
row venation of that species. Prof. Macoun has collected on Prince 
Edward Island, in wet pastures near the sea, four small leathery spe-_ 
cimens, which approach O. arenarium in size and shape, but five 
