6 PEOCEEDINGS OE THE 



was Asplenium viride ; and Gen. Kirby Smith, who had had ample 

 opportunity of studying A. Bradleyi on the eastern slopes of the 

 Cumberland Plateau, remarked that A. viride and A. Bradleyi 

 were so much alike that they might be varieties. 



The other plants exhibited, however, showed a gradual tendency 

 to become more and more compound, culminating in a luxuriant 

 specimen with pinnatifid fronds 10 inches long, the green rhachis 

 becoming purple and shining in all the plants exposed to the 

 sun's rays. 



The affinities of so variable a fern are naturally of interest, 

 Eaton (' Ferns of North America ') remarked : " If there could be 

 a hybrid between A. eheneum and A. montanum, it would be much 

 like our plant." Asa Gray, following Eaton, said, " Intermediate 

 between A. eheneum and A. montanum." Baker, in the ' Synopsis 

 Filicum,' says, " Between montanum and lanceolatum." Mr. Mid- 

 dleton believed it to be very near to A. viride, and perhaps 

 intermediate (though not a hybrid) between A. viride and 

 A. lanceolatum. A. viride, identical with the species of Europe 

 and Asia, is essentially boreal, and occurs in British America 

 from New Brunswick to British Columbia, as well as in the State 

 of Vermont. A. Bradleyi then takes its place, extending south 

 from New York to Georgia and Alabama, and west to Arkansas. 

 A. lanceolatum, Huds., is not American at all, but is found in 

 Europe, North Africa, and some of the Atlantic islands (Madeira, 

 Azores, and St. Helena). The exhibitor did not consider that 

 A. Bradleyi had any special affinity either with A. montanum or 

 A. eheneum, which are entirely American except that the latter 

 appears in Cape Colony. N. L. Britton and A. Brown, in their 

 new ' Illustrated Flora,' state that A. Bradleyi prefers a lime- 

 stone soil, but Mr. Middleton had found it strictly confined to 

 sandstone, although the carboniferous limestone was immediately 

 adjacent. 



Critical remarks were made by Mr. C. B. Clarke and Mr. Car- 

 ruthers. 



Mr. J. C. Shenstone exhibited a collection of 700 photographs 

 of British Flowering Plants, to show what could be accomplished 

 by means of the camera in the direction of botanical illustration. 

 He contended that photography was the only means by which the 

 lines and masses of our flowering plants, as truly characteristic as 

 the less subtle characters by means of which botanists group and 

 arrange plants into orders, genera, and species, could be readily 

 reproduced. He explained the various technical processes and 

 apparatus necessary for successful plant photography, and alluded 

 to the difficulties inseparable from the photography of plants in 

 their natural habitats, &c. His remarks were illustrated by mean& 

 of lantern-slides. 



A discussion followed in which Prof. Farmer, Messrs. Holmes^ 

 Monckton, H. Groves, Crisp, Carruthers, and Middleton took 

 part. 



