202 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



produced shoots. (2) When cut stalks of mature Equisetum hyemale 

 are put into water, small papillae (branches) appear on the lowest node 

 in five days, and two days later appear on the node next above. These 

 new branches grow up into the air, and from their base put out roots 

 which grow down into the water. Similarly when cut stems are 

 planted in the soil. Not more than three branches arise from a node, 

 and not more than three nodes put out branches. R. C. Benedict* 

 publishes some notes on ferns seen during the summer of 1908.- A 

 second station for the hybrid Dryopteris Goldieana x marginalia Dowell 

 has been found near Jamesville, N.Y. Two new localities for D. simulata, 

 Davenport, in New York State, are reported. D. dilatata Gray has been 

 found on Blue Mountain, N.Y., at an altitude of 3000 ft. Two 

 aberrant forms of Osmunda cinnamomea L. are described. 



Indian Ferns. — R. H. Beddomef has been studying the late 

 C. W. Hope's articles on the Ferns of North-west India published in 

 previous numbers of the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 

 and offers criticisms upon some fifteen of the species created by Hope. 

 Holding a much broader conception of the proper limits of a species, 

 he considers that Hope did not make sufficient allowance for the 

 variability of a species, and that he did wrong in wishing to make 

 species out of the varieties of such well-known cosmopolitan ferns as 

 Polystichum aculeatum and Lastrea Filix-mas — varieties which it is 

 often almost impossible to distinguish owing to their being linked up 

 by intermediate forms. Beddome suggests that if gardeners in India 

 would carefully raise from the spores the different varieties of Athyrium 

 Filix-femina, A. nigripes, Polystichum aculeatum, Lastrea Filix-mas, some 

 very interesting scientific results would be forthcoming. 



E. Blatter $ publishes some contributions to the flora of North 

 Coimbatore founded on materials supplied by C. E. C. Fischer, and 

 including a list of 50 ferns. 



E. Blatter § gives an enumeration of 110 species and varieties of 

 ferns recorded for the Bombay Presidency, with their full distribution 

 (1) in the Presidency ; (2) in India ; (3) outside India. The sources 

 from which the list was compiled are duly indicated, viz., literature, 

 herbaria, etc. 



The same author || enumerates 236 species and varieties of Ceylon 

 ferns in the Bombay Natural History Society's Herbarium, with their 

 distribution in Ceylon so far as is known. New records by Macpherson 

 are included. 



Ferns of Annam. 1" — H. Christ publishes an enumeration of the 

 ferns of French Annam collected by M. Eberhardt, who explored the- 

 ranges of Lang Bian (5500 ft.) and of Tam-Dao (3000 ft.), the ferns 

 of South Annam being previously but little known. In character the 

 fern-flora is mainly Indo-Malayan with a sprinkling of Chinese forms 

 and some endemics. The list contains 123 species, of which about a 

 score are new. 



* Torreya, viii. (1908) pp. 284-6. 



t Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc, xviii. (1908) pp. 338-42. 



X Tom. cit., pp. 390-429. § Tom. cit., pp. 599-612. 



|| Tom. cit., pp. 639-48. f Journ. de Bot., xxi. (1908) pp. 228-40, 261-74. 



