TERATOLOGICAL NOTES 23 I 



the "circles" are also evident early in spring by the peculiar 

 phenomenon of rings of very much more luxuriant growth of grass 

 in the places where the previous season's fungi grew. My attention 

 was called to the fact by a question from one of the professors, as to 

 the reason for more early, more rapid, and more luxuriant growth 

 of grass in certain large ringlike formations on the lawn. Investi- 

 gation of the subject revealed the fact that the development of 

 grass was more notable in places where these Physarum "rings" 

 of the previous seasons' growth had appeared. 



It might seem then that these slime moulds may play not an 

 inconsiderable part in reducing partly decomposed organic material 

 back to a condition in which it may be more easily utilized by 

 ordinary or chlorophyll-bearing plants. 



Teratological Notes. 



Specimens of the common Harebell with perfectly white 

 flowers were found at Grand Beach, Michigan, on the Indiana 

 side of the state boundary. They were collected on the lake side 

 of the last dune and immediately facing the usually strong winds of 

 the lake. The plants had the dwarfed appearance of dune speci- 

 mens with unusual strong root system also characteristic of these 

 sand grown specimens. 



At Notre Dame albinoes of Lobelia syphilitica Linn., were 

 rather common along the marl covered shores of the lake where 

 the water had receded only three or four seasons ago. The calyx 

 lobes and cup were not structurally the same as in the type but 

 the differences were mostly due to the matter of size, rather 

 than to shape. 



A specimen of Onoclea sensibilis was also found, during the 

 past summer, in which a portion of a vegetative frond was changed 

 to a sporophyll with intermediate gradations of form of pinnae. 

 Similar cases to the two last mentioned had previously been men- 

 tioned in Am. Nat. II. p. 657 and 658. J. a n. 



