220 



August no less than three species of Botrychhim growing in the 



sand, just beyond the beach. They were never within reach of 



the salt water, but were however most abundant only about ten 



yards above the reach of ordinary high tides, where they must be 



exposed to spray during storms. In other terms, they were 



among the plants which formed the first fringe of vegetation along 



the coast, excepting those which actually grew on the beach, and 



these were very few. By far the most common species was B. 



neglectwn Wood, the others were B. lauccolatwn (Gmel.) Angs., 



and B. Matricaviae (Schrank) Spreng. In the course of seventeen 



days spent in this general region, on shore and on the islands, I 



did not find elsewhere either of the first two species, and of the 



last only three plants together, on a rocky point at the head 



of the bay. At the place where the Botrychiums were found, I 



was nowhere far from the shore, but in other places I was far 



inland and never found any trace of these species, except as 



stated. All the material collected was submitted to Professor 



L. M. Underwood for specific determination. Professor M. L. 



Fernald has since informed me that he has on several occasions 



found Botrychiums in similar situations on the south shore of the 



Gulf 



C. B. Robinson. 

 New York Botanical Garden. 



SCHREINEK AND ReED ON DELETERIOUS ExCRETIONS BY RoOTS. 



— In the June issue of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 

 Messrs. Schreiner and Reed contribute the results of a very in- 

 teresting series of experiments which were designed to test the 

 existence or otherwise of obnoxious substances excreted from the 

 roots of plants. If I venture to draw attention to what seems to 

 be a fallacy, I trust it may not be considered as carping criticism. 

 For not only is their method of experiment ingenious, but it must 

 be generally admitted that there is a very real problem to be 

 solved regarding the relation of one field crop to another. The 

 fallacy to which I draw attention is this : The authors designed 

 their apparatus so that if a substance should form about the 

 roots, it might have an opportunity of diffusing from its more 

 concentrated solution about the roots into a larger body of the 



