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58 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
name Pellaea mucronata D. C. Eaton properly applies to 
the fern long known as P. ornithopus Hook., and that 
P. Wrightiana, as it has generally been understood in 
recent years, really includes three species, true P. Wright- 
jana, a second long ago described by Hooker as P. 
longimucronata and a third, likewise already described 
by Davenport as a variety of P. Wrightiana, (though 
it is much more closely related to P. mucronata) and 
now raised to specific rank as P. compacta (Davenp.) 
Maxon. 
Some, at least, of our readers will remember Dr. 
W. N. Steil as the discoverer of apogamy in the purple 
cliff-brake. He has been for some six years carrying 
on further studies of apogamy in various ferns and 
now has published some of the results.‘ He has found 
several new cases of apogamy in the genera Pellaea, 
Pteris and Aspidium (used by him in the Fatonian 
sense to include Dryopteris, Tectaria and. Polystichum) 
and concludes that it is a rather common phenomenon 
in these genera and a constant one in some species. 
He describes the manner in which embryo plants are 
produced without fertilization. Antheridia are usually 
developed on apogamous prothallia and give rise to 
sperm-cells apparently normal and capable of func 
tioning. Archegonia are much more rarely produced. 
In a few cases the same prothallium produced twe 
embryos, one apogamously, the other apparently as 
the result of fertilization. 
One of Dr. Steil’s most interesting experiments was 
the attempt to induce apogamy in the royal fern, ® 
normally non-apogamous species, by preventing Sd 
tilization for a year and a half. The attempt entirely 
re 
Bull. 
*Steil, W. N. Studies of some new cases of apogamy in ferns. 
Torr. Bot. Club 45: 93-108. pls. 4 and 5. March, 1918. 
