42 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Some Notes of Rare Ferns.— On the trip to Ocala last December 

 we noticed quantities of the beautiful Aster Carolifiianus, full of large 

 bright blossoms, growing all along the Ochlavvaha river. About 

 Ocala the flowers were scarce just then, but I gathered a large number 

 of fine Aspkniinn firmiifu, two forms of A. myriopliylhtm and two forms 

 of Pteris Cirtica. When I saw the number of flourishing plants I had 

 no fear of destroying localities, and was able to secure entire ferns for 

 my specimens. 



I was also successful in getting a goodly quantity of fruited Polypo- 

 dii/fti Plum Ilia from a monster Live Oak in a deep forest near St. Au- 

 gustine. This is the first time that I have collected this fern in really 

 good condition. Though one of our prettiest ferns it gives more 

 trouble in pressing than any other one, I think. This is caused by the 

 extreme elasticity of the rhachis, which is so great that the frond 7vi/l 

 not stay as it is placed, and by the rolling up of the pinnae. Unless 

 placed in an extremely wet atmosphere they will not uncoil, and then 

 they are all ready to curl right up again unless pressed at once. I 

 have collected also excellent specimens of Acrostichum aiireiim. Some 

 of these are simply upper sections of fruited fronds, and some show 

 the entire fertile frond. The latter are five or six feet long and are 

 very handsome ferns. — Mary C. Reynolds. 



Rhus Toxicodendron. — I notice in the Gazette for October, 

 1879, an account of an unusually large specimen of Rhus Toxicoden- 

 dron. As every botanist knows, this species is usually prostrate or 

 creeping over walls^and fences and at the north rarely high climbing, 

 the stems seldom more than a half inch in diameter. It was with as- 

 tonishment, therefore, that I noted during the winter of 1879 the 

 enormous specimens among the timber along the Grand river in the 

 Cherokee Nation. Many of them were not less than six inches in 

 diameter and climbing to the tops of the tallest trees, thus rivaling 

 Te.co??ia radicans and Vitis. 



Here in Missouri the largest trees along the streams have been 

 felled and most of the old si)ecimensof the RJuts which clung to them 

 been destroyed; still, very large specimens are frequent. I note that 

 while R. txphina is the most abundant species in northern New Eng- 

 land, R. copallina is largely in excess of the others here in the south- 

 west. — William F. Flint, Bozvcrs Mills, Missouri. [, 



CoMMELYNACE.E.. — At a meeting of the Linnean Society on Feb. 5, 

 Mr. C. B. Clarke gave an oral re'suvie' of this order, which he had 

 lately worked out for DeCandolle's " Prodromus." He defined the 

 order by the position of the embryo, as not surroundeil by albumen, 

 but closely applied to the embryostega, which is always remote from 

 the hilum. An important auxiliary character is that the three seg- 

 ments of the calyx are always imbricated, so that one is entirely out- 

 side of the two others. Mr. Clarke divides the Commclxnacecp mto 



