BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 222 



logical column" of that enterprising botanical journal, The Bulletin of 

 the Torrey Botanical Club, Mr. Davenport and others have directed at- 

 tention CO a number of interesting cases of this deviation. I have 

 been here favored with an excellent Ojiportunity of contributing to 

 this department. Bifurcation of fronds is so common here among cer 

 tain species, as to have ceased to attract any attention. It is (juite 

 common in Chcilanthes lanuginosa. In this species the fnrking is al- 

 ways at the apex of the frond. The forks are quite slender, and di- 

 vided in like manner to the lower pinnae. I do not remember to 

 have seen a forking pinna in this species. But in C. Eatoni, while 

 the apices are occasionally seen to fork, the common phenomenoii is 

 the forking of the pinnae. In all such cases the forking does not 

 take place at or near the apex of the pinna, but usually below the 

 middle, and often quite near the stalk. The forks are regularly 

 divided, or, at least, quite as regularly as the other portions of the 

 frond, which are themselves quite irregular in their mode of division. 

 But by far the most interesting thing found in my collecting was a 

 frond of this species which l)ore, at a distance of two or three inches 

 below the lowest pinna, what appeared to be a branch, subtended by 

 a bract. The branch, which, with the bract, was dead and withered 

 when I found it, though the frond was quite green, was probably 

 a sportive pinna, and the bract a much enlarged scale. But the spec- 

 imen would have well repaid a little study. I laid it away too care- 

 fully, for I have been unable to find it since. 



While the above-named s])ecies have a decided tendency to 

 sport as described, the fern which is preeminently characterized by 

 this tendency is the form of JJ'oodsia ijte^ana which 1 find here, and 

 which, for this reason, I think should be distinguished by name, as a 

 variety. Decidedly more than half of the mature plants are found 

 to be either forked, or ])resenting the peculiar appearance which in- 

 variably precedes the final iorked condition. For the fronds are not 

 forked in this species when young, but gradually approach that condi- 

 tion. As the process is most instructive, I will describe it, regretting 

 that time will not permit me to make drawings. Many of my sub- 

 scribers will receive specimens of the abnormal form, which will serve 

 to illustrate. The lanceolate frond is entirely green and herbaceous. 

 The rachis, as well as the u])per part of the stalk, isnnrrowly winged, 

 often very narrowly. Toward the upper part of the frond this wing 

 becomes indistinct from the widening of the rachis. It widens so as 

 to increase from in width of scarcely a line to near a quarter of an 

 inch, and is surrounded by a narrow wing of incised, almost lacerate 

 frond, this enlarged terminal segment giving to the frond a sort of a 

 lyrate appearance. This segment becomes emarginate as the widened 

 rachis divides, and as the recurved-spreading forks lengthen. the notch 

 in tne segment deejjens, until we have two distinct and well defined 

 forks. These forks never become long or slender, but exhibit a ten- 

 dency to fork again in the same manner. Sometimes the pinnae ex- 

 hibit the same kind of terminal enlargement, but I have not seen one 

 reach the forked state. It is not pleasant to draw conclusions, but it 

 seems as though the seat of the disposition to fork is in the rachis, and 



