ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 691 



Nephrodium proper (including Goniopteris, MesocMcBna, and Meniscmiri). 

 The Philippines are particulary rich in these species. In Nephrodium 

 proper, nowhere else is there such diversity of forms with special 

 characters, for example, pinn^ attenuated toward their bases, lower 

 pinnge deflexed, lower pinnae degenerating into auricles gradually or 

 abruptly. These characters are rather rare in other parts of the world. 

 In the Philippines also is an interesting tendency to " insular " reduced 

 types, rare elsewhere ; for example, in D. canesceiis ; but the variations 

 do not as yet appear to be constant. Analogous variations are found in 

 other genera ; for example, under Leptochilus heterocUtus, Fteris easi- 

 formis, P. heteromorpha. Analogous insular forms in the West Indies 

 are found in Polystichum, Fadyema, Sagetiia, and especially in Dryopteris 

 reptans. The wonderful variations of Dryopteris canesceiis into acrosti- 

 choid forms in the Philippines strengthen the view as to the possible 

 affinity of Leptochilus, Gymnopteris, Polybotrya, Egenolfia, Stenosemia, 

 and CcBiiopteris with Aspidium. The contention that Acrostichum is 

 only Aspidium with reduced fertile pinnae is much supported by the 

 parallel instance. The author's list comprises 78 species, amongst which 

 are 17 species and 2 sub-species new to science. 



North America Ferns. — A. Hans * describes and figures some 

 variable sporelings of Lomaria spicant. W. N. Clutet published some 

 notes upon the struggle for existence manifested by ferns in the tropics, 

 especially Jamaica. They are very abundant — on the ground, climbing 

 or trailing over trees, epiphytic on the branches, creeping on the trunks. 

 Sometimes they occupy sun-baked hillsides, where nothing else will 

 grow ; for example, thickets of Gleichenia, Gymnogramma powdered over 

 with a waxy coating, Notholmna clothed with scales. One species of 

 Acrostichum sends up a scaly cord-like root-stock upon a tree-trunk to a 

 height of 20 feet before emitting its great fronds. He also discusses % 

 the case of Osmunda cinnmnomea, which normally fruits in the spring, 

 but in Florida and the southern states has a second fruiting season in the 

 autumn. He describes § Pteris aquilina pseudocaudnta an aberrant form 

 of the bracken common in the southern states. He continues his checklist |1 

 of the North American Fernworts from Nephrolepis to Phegopteris. 

 A. C. Dalgityl discusses the value of the common brake-fern as a food, 

 and describes some successful experiments made with the young leafy 

 shoots as an article of cooked food. This is supplemented by an 

 anonymous note ** upon the esculent properties of some other ferns, 

 notably the farinaceous medulla of the trunks of a few species of Gyathea 

 and Alsophiln. 



Ferns of the Black Forest.tt — A. Geheeb publishes some notes on 

 ferns from the Schwarzwald of Baden. He records and describes a very 

 rare monstrosity new to the district, Asplenium trichomanes var. 

 ynultifidum Moore, and compares it with var. microphylla and var. lohato- 

 crenaia. He also records the occurrence of Woodsia ilveiisis from a 



* Fern Bulletin, xv, (1907) pp. 33-4. t Tom. cit., pp. 34-8. 



t Tom. cit., pp. 39-40. § Tom. cit., pp. 43-4. 



II Tom. cit., pp. 45-9. t Tom. cit., pp. 41-3. 



Tom. cit , pp. 50-1. ft Allgem. Bot. Zeitschr., xiii. (1907) pp. 127-30. 



Dec.' 18th, 1907 2 z 



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