Frern Notes 7 
Separate out unbroken specimens. On some of these 
there would be plants in several stages of development, 
some just starting, with a minute fascicle of roots and 
a mere spot of a bud, to fully mature plants. 
In many of the colonies the fronds appear only singly; 
in others:in pairs only; while in other groups both styles 
occur. 
Tn most of the colonies the fertile fronds are rather 
rare, not more than one in a hundred bearing the fertile 
spike, 
Sometimes both fronds of a pair will be fertile, occa- 
sionally but one, and there were colonies in which every 
frond was fertile—while in others only the paired fronds 
were fertile. 
Almost without exception where the plant has but 
one frond, there is a large, well-developed bud close by 
on the crown, and, also, where there are two sterile 
fronds the bud is often present; I have never, however, 
found the bud on those plants which bore two fertile 
ronds. 
T also note that several large colonies which in 1916 
Produced a large number of paired fruiting fronds have 
Very few fertile fronds this year. I dug up a lot of 
Plants from one of these colonies, and found many of 
them without fronds at all, and with no visible bud 
on the crown, though the root-system seemed to be 
healthy enough. 
In the drier situations the fronds are longer and 
“ore slender in proportion to those in places more uni- 
ormly moist, these latter being thicker and broader, 
and looking like a different plant. 
[have found a few plants well advanced in February; 
While the great host of plants has its growth and devel- 
potent from the middle of April until the end of May; 
ave found mature plants in April, in June, 10 July, 
‘nd in September and October. 
