SHORTER NOTES 121 
1918, on the surface of tap water and nutrient solutions. 
The spores of three species proved to be especially 
long-lived. Those of Pellaea atropurpurea L. collected 
eight years ago possess a very high percentage of ger- 
mination. Woronin* (1908) sowed spores of Notholaena 
Eckloniana Kunze, a species closely related to Pellaea, 
and found that they germinated twelve years after they 
had been collected. Spores of Pellaea gracilis Hook 
coilected by the writer in 1912 still germinate. The 
spores of Aspidium thelypteris Swartz collected in 1911 
germinate at the present time, but not so abundantly 
as those of the other two species.—W. N. Srein, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, Madison. 
A NE&GLECTED CHARACTER IN THE BEECH-FERNS.— 
Most of our fern books, from Eaton’s Ferns of North 
America on, make the statement that the long and 
broad beech ferns, though undoubtedly different species, 
are often hard to tell apart; and amateurs may fre- 
quently be heard to complain that the statement is 
only too true. So it is if leaf-form alone is considered; 
for in ferns, as in other plants, the leaf is apt to vary 
considerably in shape and cutting with age and from the 
effect of external conditions. But there is one detail 
which the writer, in the examination of some scores of 
specimens, has found nearly invariable and very help- 
ful in deciding doubtful cases. 
This character is to be found in the scales which in 
both species are borne along the main mid-rib on the 
under side of the frond. They are too small to be seen 
clearly with the naked eye, but can be readily made out 
with a low-powered magnifying-glass, such as most of 
uS possess. In the long beech fern they are rather 
*Woronin, Helene. (1908) Apogamie und Aposporie bei einigen Far- 
nen. Flora 98: 101-162. f. 1-72. 
