Notes and News. 95 



perfect partly double circle. They came up almost 

 simultaneously this time, and the tallest are about 

 thirty-six inches high and nearly ten inches across. 

 As heretofore, the upper halves of the fronds are heavily 

 fruited but these fruit dots appear abortive and under 

 the magnifying glass are like tiny specks of fine sponge 

 or punk. 



In the early autumn I hope to press these fronds and 

 with others gathered last summer, would like to offer 

 them for exchange. I shall also have specimens of the 

 more common New England ferns — over thirty species 

 and several of each to give to any one caring to pay 

 the postage. 



On fern collecting in Europe. 



"Genoa, Rome, Bologna, Florence, Venice and Buda- 

 pest do not afford very satisfactory opportunities for 

 botanizing. This is particularly true of Venice, and 



in a brief of several days. at most, it is not easy to get 

 into the real country. Still I carry my botanical gun 

 always with me, having learned, like other hunters, 

 that without one's gun one is likely to come across 

 game which he cannot bag. But even in most cases 

 where I have been able to get away from paved streets, 

 there has been a great lack of the only plants which I 

 have any purpose to collect. 



I attribute this for the most to the fact that such 

 soil as I have been able to cover is clayey and poorly 

 drained. On such soil the most 1 have found are a few 

 species of Equisetum. On a rich bank, shaded by 

 deciduous trees, in Budapest, Hungary, Cystopteris 



fragxlis and Asplenium trichomanes were abundant, but 

 even these widely prevalent species have been sur- 

 prisingly absent from most of the area which has come 

 under my notice. 



An interesting exception to what I have written, 



