THE PLANT WORLD 73 



Briefer Articles. 



A SINGULAR FORM OF THE CHRISTMAS FERN. 



The accompanying plate sliows two curiously transformed fronds of 

 tlie common Christmas fern, Polystichum acrostichoides (Michx.) Schott, 

 collected on May 25th, 1901, in the picturesque vicinity of Glen Carlyn, 

 which is not far from Falls Church, Virginia. Both fronds are ordi- 

 narily fertile at their apices, and these portions alone, it will be observed, 

 lie in the normal plane. The sterile pinnae have assumed a semi-circu- 

 lar form in a plane perpendicular to the fertile portion ; each is curved 

 upward into a semicircle and folded lengthwise upon itself, the midvein 

 forming the keel or boundary of the inner curve. The views here pre- 

 sented of the two fronds supplement each other admirably ; but after all, 

 the print fails to convey an adequate impression of the extreme oddity 

 of the fresh specimens. Except for the flat fertile tips the fronds were 

 like latticed green tubes. 



The fronds were collected hastily near a path in a rich woodland by 

 an acquaintance while " a-birding," and no particular notice was taken 

 of the surroundings or of the plant itself ; consequently a later search 

 did not avail in locating the plant, and we do not know whether the other 

 fronds were of this sort. It would have been of the greatest interest to 

 develop the form under cultivation, and it is scarcely to be doubted that 

 so well-marked a type of variation could have been made permanent and 

 very likely could have been multiphed successfully. I shall make a 

 further search for the plant, during the present spring. The plate here- 

 with presented is from a photograph by Mr. Henry E. Baum, and shows 

 the plant at its natural size. — William R. Maxon, Washington, D. G. 



THE SEQUOIA FORESTS. 



The part of the Twenty-first Annual Report of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey devoted to Forest Reserves, by Mr. Henry Gannett, Geographer, 

 now in press, but not jet published, contains the reports on the Yose- 

 mite and Sonora qiiadrangles, by Mr. C. H. Fitch, and on the Marklee- 

 ville, Pyramid Peak, Placerville, Dardanelles, Big Trees, and Jackson 

 quadrangles, by Mr. Geo. B. Sudworth. The total area included in the 



