173 



ing only at the base, rigid, about 1.5 mm. in diameter; leaves 

 about io-ranked, short, about 1.5 mm. long, closely appressed, 

 grooved dorsally in the lower two thirds, ending in a slender 

 white coiled hair 0.7-0.9 mm. long, and with 8-12 very short 

 minute cilia on each margin ; strobiles inconspicuous, less than 5 

 mm. long, terminal on the branches, the sporophylls similar to 

 the ordinary leaves but wider and graduating into them ; micro- 

 sporangia three-lobed, the microspores pale yellow, rugose- 

 reticulate, 0.44 mm. in diameter ; microsporangia round-reniform, 

 the microspores bright yellow, smooth, 44// in diameter. 



Near Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina, altitude 

 5,000 ft. J. Donnell Smith, 1882; W. L. Sherwood, 1901 and 

 1902 (type in the New York Botanical Garden). 



Specimens of this plant first collected by John Donnell Smith 

 are fairly well represented in D. C. Eaton's collection and more 

 meager specimens are in the Gray herbarium ; they have hitherto 

 been confused with 5". tortipila A. Br. Fine plants of this beau- 

 tiful species have been collected in 1901 and again in 1902 by 

 Mr. W. L. Sherwood, and these have enabled us to draw up the 

 above description. The plant is allied to S. tortipila which it re- 

 sembles in the coiled or twisted terminal hairs of the leaves. ^S. 

 tortipila was described by Alexander Braun from plants collected 

 in 1 84 1 by Rugel and a cotype of the species is in our herbarium. 

 In place of the slender lax sprawling habit of 6". tortipila with en- 

 larged though short strobiles, we have here a very compact bushy 

 or tree-like plant with stout stems, many-ranked leaves, and 

 strobiles which are scarcely noticeable as the branches graduate 

 imperceptibly into them without enlargement. There is also a 

 fragmentary specimen of this species in the Gray herbarium col- 

 lected in South Carolina also by John Donnell Smith so that the 

 species is likely to be found at various places in the higher at- 

 titudes of the Southern Appalachians. 



VACATION OBSERVATIONS. I 



By Francis E. Lloyd 



Displacement of Leaves. — Occasionally a maple twig is found 

 in which the leaves are arranged in decussating whorls of threes. 

 If we accept the explanation that decussating pairs of leaves arise 



