98 TWELFTH REPORT. 



NOTES ON THE YELLOW ADDEK'S TONGUE. 



0. A. FARWELL. 



Presumably, most botanists have been at one time or another, rather 

 disappointed, to sa}^ the least, at not being able to find a rare or inter- 

 esting plant that the manuals have accredited to the districts over which 

 they have collected ; especially if they have made special bnt unsuccess- 

 ful efforts to find it. One such plant, a form of the yellow adder's- 

 tongue, occurs to the writer. It had been diligently sought for years 

 but unsuccessfully. At last, it was found in abundance, in the spring 

 of 1908, when the writer was on his annual vacation and collecting trip. 

 In places, the plant literally covers the ground with a carpet of its 

 mottled leaves. It is found in abundance in the vicinitv of Lake Linden, 

 Houghton county, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In the 5tli 

 edition of Gray's Manual, it is mentioned under E. albidum, as follows : 

 "At Lake Superior, Dr. Bobbins finds a plant like this but yeUow- 

 ■floicered, a transition toward E. Grandiflorum." This form has not 

 been mentioned in subsequent editions. A careful examination of many 

 hundreds of individuals showed that the plant is probably an aberrant 

 form of E. Americanum rather than of E. albidum. It had the mottled 

 leaves, the corm, the united stigmas and the spotted petals of the 

 former, diffenng from it only in the teething of the inner petals. A 

 careful study of these showed that the species was still in a stage of 

 ti*ansition. The inner petals varied as regards the toothing, and could 

 be found in all stages, from the usual tooth on each side at tlie base, to 

 the perfectly toothless form, as in E. albidum. Some petals showed 

 the teeth much shortened, so that they were only one-half or one-quarter, 

 etc., as long as the normal; some were toothed on one side only, while 

 in the same flower one of the inner petals might be normally 

 two-toothed, another toothless, and the other showing some intermediate 

 stage. The extreme forms, that is, the normally toothed inner petals 

 on the one hand and the toothless inner petals on the other, were not 

 as common as the intermediate stages. 



Does this form occur at other places? and if not. why not? So far as 

 the writer has been able to ascertain, this form has not been reported 

 from other localities. He has not found it in Lower Michigan where 

 the ordinary form is rather common. E. albidum occurs in the Lake 

 Superior district and its origin as a hybridization product has suggested 

 itself; but a very careful study has uot revealed any strain of E. albi- 

 dum in the form under discussion. 



The form needs further study. 



May 2, 1910. 



