21 



During ten weeks I examined a good portion of Tallulah ter- 

 ritory on my hands and knees with a lens but nowhere else did 

 I find a trace of this fern. 



Other ferns of interest found are Cheilanthes tomentosa, As- 

 plenium resiliens and Asplenium montamim. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



A UNIQUE CLIMBING PLANT 



By Roland M. Harper 



In a letter written to Dr. Small from the field a few months 

 ago, part of which was published in Torreya last October, I men- 

 tioned finding Andromeda phillyreaefolia \Pieris pJdllyreaefolia 

 (Hook.) DC], an Ericaceous shrub, climbing the cypress trees 

 (Taxodium imbricarium) in Okefinokee Swamp. As this case 

 seems to be without a parallel, at least in the North American 

 flora, some further description of it may be of interest. 



I first collected Pieris phillyreaefolia on the morning of August 

 7 (no. 1475), in a sphagnous bog not far from our first camp 

 in the swamp. There it was a shrub two to four feet tall, as 

 usually described, and there was nothing remarkable about its 

 appearance or habitat. A little later in the day our guide 

 pointed out to us a " vine " which he said climbed the cypresses 

 by creeping under their bark. I lost no time in examining a 

 specimen of this peculiar "vine" (no. 1479), and found it to 

 be the same Pieris which I had just collected. Its flowering 

 branches projecting from the tree at various distances from the 

 ground gave it the appearance of a parasite, but by pulling some 

 of it away from the tree I discovered its flattened stems concealed 

 between the inner and outer layers of the fibrous bark of the 

 cypress. No connection between the shrub and the living por- 

 tion of the tree by rootlets or otherwise was observed, and it is not 

 likely that the Pieris derives any advantage except mechanical sup- 

 port from this arrangement. I did not take time to trace the creep- 

 ing stem down to the ground, nor did I observe where it first 

 penetrated the bark of the tree. The concealed part of the stem 



