106 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
smaller than the normal one at the apex of the plant, 
the latter being 2 em. long, while the largest of the 15 
on the branches measures only 8 mm. 
The next whorl below this was made up of 22 branches, 
the longest 9 cm. Sixteen of these also bore cones, the 
largest being about 1 cm. long. No cones were ob- 
served on any branches below those of the two upper 
whorls. 
Mr. C. A.. Weatherby, who has very kindly looked 
up the literature of this interesting form, informs me 
that it is known as E. fluviatile var. polystachyum 
(Briickn.) A. A. Eaton, Fern Bull. x. 74(1902), and 
that at the time when Eaton published the new combi- 
nation but one specimen had been known to occur in 
the United States, collected by J. B. Flett at Tacoma, 
Wash. The form seems to be well-known in Europe, 
however, having been originally described by Briickner 
as Equisetum polystachyum in 1803 (Fl. Neobrand. Prod. 
63), and has since his day acquired a synonymy quite 
too formidable to be reproduced here. 
In one other specimen collected, the terminal cone, 
instead of being solitary, bore a smaller one on each side 
of it, giving a sort. of fleur-de-lis effect to the apex of 
the stem, and seeming to indicate that the evolution 
of the species is still in a state of very unstable equilib- 
rium. 
The specimen with the fruiting branches has been 
deposited in the Herbarium of the Fern Society (my 
no. 2781/4), and the writer is indebted to the kindness 
of the Curator, Professor L. S. Hopkins, for the illus- 
tration here presented. 
SALEM, OREGON. 
