BICKNELL: FERNS AND FLOWERING PLANTS OF NANTUCKET Sil 
mens of an Isoétes, from the herbarium of the University of Cali- 
fornia, that were collected by him in company with Professor 
W. J. V. Osterhout, in Gibb’s Pond, Nantucket, in the summer of 
1894. I quotefrom Professor Setchell’s letter of transmittal: “We 
found the Isoétes when we were bathing in the pond. It grew in 
water so deep that we could not reach down for it but grubbed it 
out with our toes and collected it as it floated to the surface. My 
impression is that it formed a regular zone at a depth of four or 
five feet. I particularly remember that we were in water up to 
about the chin while we were collecting it. None of it grew in 
the more shallow margins. I may add that the bottom of the 
pond was thickly covered with the Iscétes in the zone in which it 
grew.” 
The plant is the smallest and most delicate form of Isoétes 
that I have ever examined. Although it is quite probable that 
it is correctly referred to J. Tuckermant it is scarcely well enough 
matured to permit of conclusive determination. Mrs. Britton, 
who has examined the gynospores under high power, gives me the 
following particulars: “Size, 415 m, not pitted, slightly roughened” ; 
Miss Margaret Slosson, who has studied the specimens, reports 
as follows: ‘‘Impossible to determine by the macrospores as they 
are too immature to show their characters; but the spots ‘scattered, 
1-few-celled’ on the sporangia show distinctly and indicate fe 
Tuckermant.”’ 
*Pinus Strosus L. 
A single tree was discovered July 9, 1912, among an extensive 
growth of pitch pines less than a half mile south of the County 
Fair grounds. It was about ten feet in height and was formed of 
several clustered trunks, actually erect branches that had replaced 
an original trunk, the stoutest one measuring seventeen and one 
half inches in circumference near the base; the lowest branches 
lay firmly along the ground, spreading fully thirty-five feet in 
their widest extent. The undisturbed surroundings scarcely allow 
it to be supposed that this tree was deliberately planted, and how 
it came to Nantucket remains a mystery. A chance introduction 
by seed seems quite possible, perhaps through the agency of some 
bird that, like the crossbills or the Canada nuthatch, feeds on the 
seeds of conifers. 
