AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY — 61 
three years’ illness which ended. in the death of this 
great silent lover of God’s almighty nature, loved him- 
self by all who had the good fortune to know him.—JouNn 
F. Huss, Hartford, Conn. 
Mr. Hans was a real lover of ferns. Soon after he went 
to Locust Valley, he wrote with grief of the fact that 
ferns would not do well in that dry, brookless section of 
Long Island. His fern beds at Stamford were full of 
what were individual plants to him, and he was contin- 
ually adding species by purchase, and by sowings of 
spores received from abroad. He established the fact 
that the holly fern, Cyrtomium falcatum, if derived from - 
a north of Japan source, was hardy with slight protec- 
tion. 
Of even greater interest were his experimental spore 
plantings. As a result of one of these he obtained spore- 
lings of Nephrolepis from material of the commonly 
cultivated N. exaltata bostoniensis which is almost in- 
variably sterile. He published a brief report of this cul- 
ture in the Florists’ Exchange. At the Stamford place, 
in the small greenhouse, besides a small collection of 
greenhouse ferns, he had a section for spore growing, 
and every planting was made an experiment in hybri- 
dization, two or more varieties being planted together. 
At least once he obtained very interesting results, in 
the form of a distinct hybrid between Dryopteris filix- 
mas and D.marginalis, reference to which was made in the 
Fern Journal in connection with Mr. Winslow’s descrip- 
tion of the wild type of this hybrid. A specimen was 
deposited at the N. Y. Botanical Garden.—R. C. B. 
The death of Prof. George Francis Atkinson from 
influenza and pneumonia removes one of the most pro- 
minent botanists of the country. Prof. Atkinson had 
recently discontinued active work as professor of bot- 
