60 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



ordinary temperature to swell up much more violently than pure 

 water, without however destroying their organization. 11 — Sachs' 

 Text-book of Botany, Bennett & Dyers 1 Trans., p. 592. 



Accompanying the above statement, Sachs gives a figure of 

 the bast-fibers from the leaf of Hotja carnosa as they appear after 

 treatment with sup'huric acid and iodine. All my attempts to ob- 

 tain these appearances with "greatly diluted 11 sulphuric acid hav- 

 ing failed, I repeated the experiment using acid (C. P.) of known 

 strength. No perceptible effect was produced by the application to 

 different specimens ofdilutions containing 20, 30, 40 or 50 per cent, 

 of acid. Sixty per cent, acid however produced the extraordinary 

 swelling as figured by Sachs. Similar experiments were tried with 

 the bast-fibers from the leaves of Yucca aloifolia and Latonta Bor- 

 bonica with similar results. It seems to me that 60 p. c. acid can 

 hardly be said to be "greatly diluted. 11 



Can an}' one explain the discrepancy? — Lizzie Shoemakee, 



Botanical Laboratory. Purdue University, LaFai/ette, Inch 



A Bit of Fern History. — In reviewing the history of some of 

 our rare ferns during the past ten years, it is interesting to note 

 the changes which have occurred in their comparative scarcity and 

 abundance. 



Ten years ago Botrychium xinqjlex was so great a rarity that 

 one might almost despair of ever obtaining a specimen; now it is 

 plentiful enough, obtainable with little or no difficulty, and seldom 

 called for in exchange. In Massachusetts it had not been collected 

 for many years, when E. S. Wheeler detected it in Berlin, in 1878. 

 Since then it has only been recorded twice — both times from Essex 

 Co. — and is still rare in the State where it was originally discovered 

 by Rev. Edward Hitchcock, in 1822. When E. S. Miller found it 

 on Long Island, N. Y., in 1873, those who were able to secure spec- 

 imens from him, regarded themselves as fortunate indeed. But in 

 1877 Mrs. Chas. Barnes, of Syracuse, found it so plentiful in the 

 North Woods that she was able to supply man}' demands for it, 

 while in the same year Mr. Pringle found it equally plentiful in 

 Vermont. Since then it has continued to turn up at intervals in 

 different localities from Maine to California, until probably no one 

 who has made any effort to make up a collection of North Ameri- 

 can Ferns is without a specimen. 



The writer recalls the pleasurable emotions with which he first 

 received imperfect specimens qi Asplenium myriophyllum and Chei- 

 lantheS lAndheimeri, at that time aesiderata so rare as seemingly to 

 be placed beyond reach. The first of these was received from Dr. 

 Chapman himself — the specimen being the last of the original col- 

 lection made by him twent}' years before, a fact which enhanced its 

 value greatly- — and the writer still remembers how eagerly some 

 friends received, and how uracil ihey prized the precious bits which 

 he ventured to detach from his specimen to share with them. But 



