THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 105 



tional description of fern venation may be quite embarrased 

 to find in any good fern collection that perhaps half of the 

 specimens have netted veins instead of the forked veins he 

 expects. Notwithstanding the occasional similarities of vena- 

 tion, however, the leaves of ferns, monocots and dicots are 

 usually easy to distinguish. The difference is not solely in 

 the disposition of the small veins. Along with the charac- 

 teristically netted or irregular venation of dicots, goes a ten- 

 dency of the leaf to have several series of veins branching off 

 from one another in a descending order of size and this is 

 the only plant group to be so characterized. In each of the 

 others there is a main vein extending through the leaf with 

 the smaller veins in marked contrast as to size. In dicots 

 the small veins usually form a network with their tips free, 

 in the monocots they may form a network but their tips are 

 seldom free. In the ferns, a network may occur, but if the 

 tips of the veins are free they often end within one of the 

 meshes formed by other veins. In other specimens, how- 

 ever, the veins fork and fork again with no signs of a network. 

 Identity of Marigold. — The common people mixed 

 things up considerably when they gave the same name to 

 plants of very different appearance or origin. The point 

 comes up in connection with the name of marigold. A cor- 

 respondent challenges the statement that Shakespeare re- 

 ferred to the marsh marigold (Caltha palnstris) when he 

 wrote of "winking Mary-buds." The Standard dictionary 

 refers "Mary-bud" to marigold but considers the latter to be 

 what is commonly known as the pot marigold {Calendula offi- 

 cinalis). Neither this species nor the African marigold 

 (Tagetes erecta), nor yet the French marigold {Tagetes 

 patiila) is native to Shakespeare's country and it seems scarce- 

 ly likely that the poet would have included a garden flower in 

 his picture of the lark rising from the dewy fields. It would 



