728 si .MMAKV OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING L'O 



species with fertile spikes in mid-June, the others at the beginning of 

 September ; hut where in one year a plant fruited heavily (that is, bore 

 two fertile spikes), it was sterile in the following year. H. W. Jewel * 

 describes Polypodium vulgare f. elongatum, a new form discovered by 

 him in Maine, and recalls how he was the first to discover the rare var. 

 auritum of the same species some years ago also in the State of .Maine. 

 S. B. Parish f figures a remarkable instance of foliar fission in / J "/.y- 

 stichum munitum growing in California. Some fronds of the plant are 

 nearly normal, others are greatly modified. B. L. Rohinson J publishes 

 n description of a new fern — Woodsia Cathcartiana — collected in 

 Minnesota thirty-four years ago, and referred by I). C. Eaton to his 

 W. scopulina, from which it differs in its glandular puberulence. 

 Robinson also alters the names of two North American ferns, and utters 

 a word of warning against the readiness evinced by some pteridologists 

 to discard the generic name Aspidium in favour of Dryopteris, despite 

 the probability that Aspidium will be placed on the list of nomina con- 

 servanda at the-Nomenclature Congress in 1910. W. L. Bacon § reports 

 the occurrence of Cryptogramma Stelleri (Pelhca gracilis Hook.) in 

 Maine, not on limestone but on a coarse granitic formation containing 

 traces of lime. A. A. Eaton || alters the names of two Xorth American 

 species of Isoetes in accordance with the Vienna Code. The Xew 

 England Botanical Club IF publish a list of the fern-allies in their 

 district, namely, Marsilia (1 species), Equisetum (6), Lycopodium | 7 i 

 Selaginella (2), Isoetes (x). 



Some Fern Hybrids in North America.** — R. C. Benedict gives 

 some general facts about fern hybrids. Hybrids are sterile, usually 

 larger than their parents, sometimes abnormal, and in many characters 

 they are intermediate between the parent species. Two hybrids which 

 occur in nature can be produced culturally — Asplenium platyneuron x 

 Camjrtosori/s rhizophyllus and Dryopteris cristata x D. marginalis. 

 Another, not found wild, has also been produced — D. Filix-mas x 

 I), marginalis. It seems reasonable to interpret as hybrids other 

 forms (principally in Dryopteris), which are sterile and similarly inter- 

 mediate between two species. For example, sterile intermediates are 

 known between D. marginalis and six other species. There would be 

 tw 7 enty-one possible combinations among the seven units. Some 

 thirteen of these appear to have been found, and descriptions of them 

 are being prepared. 



Ophioglossacege of the United States.ff — R. C. Benedict publishes 

 some brief studies in the OphioglossaceaB : (1) A descriptive key to 

 Ophioglossum in the United States. Having described the genus, and 

 having attempted to find a better term than " common stalk " in place 

 of the unsatisfactory term " petiole," he gives an analytical table in which 

 the six native species are grouped, distinguished, and shortly defined ; 

 (2) a descriptive key to Botrychium in North America : group of B. lan- 



* Fern Bulletin, xvi. (1908) pp. 85,91. 

 + Torreya, viii. (1908) pp. 164-5 (fig.). 



X Rhodora, x. (1908) pp. 29-31. § Tom. cit., p. 35. 



II Tom. cit., p. 42. f Tom. cit., pp. 59-62. 



** Torreva, viii. (1908) pp. 81-2. ft Tom. cit,, pp. 71-3, 100-3. 



