lo 



Mr. Lownes had also the opportunity, which he improved, of 

 obser\-Ing critically a large number of plants of a hybrid Spi- 

 ranthes which appears to be S. cernua X gracilis. Oakes Ames 

 has commented on this hybrid in Rhodora for April, 1921. 



These observ-ations of Mr. Lownes have been made just beyond 

 the limits of our Local Flora, but they are of interest to us not 

 only for their particular values but as evidences o.^ what may be 

 done by intensive study of a small area. — H. M. Denslow. 



Rudimentary Sporangia on the Royal Fern 



An examination of many plants of the royal fern, Osmunda 

 regalis, in late May, 1922, disclosed what seemed to be a rather 

 general tendancy for all the fronds to be fertile. On over one 

 third of the plants found some of the sterile fronds had rudi- 

 mentary sporangia on the margins of the upper pinnae. Some- 

 times only a few such sporangia were found on the two or three 

 upper pinnules, or the upper pinnule-s would be contracted and 

 covered with these sporangia, while other plants had as many as 

 six pairs of pinnae — over one third of the entire frond — covered 

 with them. These sporangia were about one third the size of 

 the ordinary fertile ones. All stages were noted from thickened, 

 tooth-like projections at the ends of veinlets to perfectly formed 

 small sporangia. Many of the smaller clumps of the fern, ap- 

 parently young ones, had no fertile leaves, but some of these 

 had a few leaves with rudimentary sporangia. On about one 

 hundred plants examined, with over a thousand fronds, there were 

 less than two hundred fertile leaves and a somewhat larger num- 

 ber with rudimentary sporangia. A month later the same and 

 other plants were examined. At that time all the fertile fronds 

 had their sporangia open and the fertile pinnae were withered or 

 falling. The rudimentary sporangia, however, were many of 

 them green, others were discolored and softened in decay while 

 a very few — a small fraction of one percent — had opened norm- 

 ally. At this time many new fronds were expanding none of 

 which showed any trace of sporangia. Later In the season 

 plants were examined from time to time without finding spor- 

 angia on any of the fronds. — G. T. Hastings. 



