BRIGFER ARTICLES. 
THE SOUTHERN MAIDENHAIR FERN IN THE BLACK 
HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 
SPECIMENS Of Adiantum capillus-veneris L., said to have grown wild 
at Cascade, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, were sent to me by 
Mrs. Alice M. Crary a couple of months ago. Yesterday, in company 
with Dr. Frederic E. Clements, I visited the locality and found the 
ferns growing in great abundance along the banks of a stream of warm 
water which issues from several very large springs. The banks of this 
stream, for nearly a mile, are lined with the ferns of all sizes and ages, 
from those just issuing from the gametophytes (which were abundant) 
to fruiting specimens 40 to 50™ high. A thorough examination con- 
vinced us that it is indigenous along this warm stream, and that it has 
not been introduced by human agency.— Cuaries E. Bessey, Zhe 
University of Nebraska, August 25, 1898. 
BACTERIAL CONTENT OF HAILSTONES. 
Bujwip* seems to have been the first investigator to make a bac- 
teriological examination of hailstones. The stones examined by him 
fell during a storm at Warschau, on May 4, 1888. He washed them 
carefully in sterilized water, then broke them into small pieces, put 
them into a sterilized test tube, and made plates from the water 
obtained from melting. In 1® of this water he found 21,000 bacteria, 
and from these he isolated the following species: &. fluorescens ligue- 
faciens, B. fluorescens putridus, and B. janthinus (Zopf). He was of the 
opinion that surface water had been carried into the air by the storm 
and frozen, and that this fact accounted for the large number of germs 
found in the hail. 
Foutin? also examined hail by bacteriological methods in 1888. 
The storm occurred at St. Petersburg, and the stones were about the 
*Bujwip, O.: Die Bakterien in Hagelkérner. Centralbl. fiir Bakt. 3:1. 1888. 
*Foutin, W.M.: Die Bakteriologische Untersuchungen von Hagel. Wratsch. 
1889, nos. 49, 50. Quoted from an abstract in the Centralbl. fiir Bakt. 7 : 372. 1890. 
1898] 211 
