THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 65 



Stalk starts from the center and reaches a height of from eigh- 

 teen inches to three or more feet. The flowers are borne in a 

 dense chister, at the top, from three to six inches long. — Flor- 

 ida Agriculturist. 



Edible Ferns. — I have never eaten a bracken, but in 

 the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, have found the early 

 shoots of ostrich fern {Onoclea striithioptcris), employed 

 as would be asparagus with us. It is quite as delicious, if not 

 more so. — W. Whitman Bailey, Providence, R. I. [Several 

 other ferns appear to be edible. The young "fiddle-heads" of 

 the cinnamon fern (Osniunda cinnamoniea) are often eaten 

 and the rare floating fern {Ceratopteris thalictroides) is re- 

 ported to be used as a pot-herb by the natives in tropical lands. 

 It grows in several places in the United States but usually 

 goes into the herbarium instead of the pot when found. The 

 bracken (Pferis aquilina), dried and pressed into cakes, is 

 said to be a regular article of commerce in Japan. — Ed.] 



Tw^iNNED Pistils ix Partridge Pea. — In the late 

 autumn of 1905 while on a botanical excursion with a party of 

 students I found that on a specimen of partridge pea (Cassia 

 Chamaecrista) one of the flowers had twinned pods. This hint 

 suggested looking for more, and on our next excursion we 

 carefully examined the plants in a dense growth of this species 

 which we passed through, with the results that we found many 

 twinned pods, and several cases where the pods were in threes. 

 In most cases we found them only after the petals and sepals 

 had fallen, but in several flowers the two pistils were found 

 while the flower leaves were still present. The occurrence of 

 more than one pistil in flowers of certain leguminous genera 

 is well known to botanists, but I venture to say that probably 

 few readers of the American Botanist are aware that by a 

 little close searching they may be seen in this common plant. — 

 Prof. Charles E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb. 



