120 Forty-fourth Report on the State Museum 



land were wholly free from it. The unavoidable conclusion is that 

 their better health and greater vigor afforded them protection 

 against this parasite. Among the noteworthy additions to our 

 State flora may be mentioned a remarkable and very ornamental 

 rarity of the common polypod fern. It is not recorded in Eaton's 

 Ferns of North America, and so far as known it has not before been 

 found in this country. Its botanical name is Polypodium vulgare 

 L. var. cristatum, Lowe. Because of its singular character and its 

 rarity I have given a figure and a more full account of it in 

 its appropriate place in this report. 



A new fungus of special interest, because of its peculiar habitat, 

 has also been brought to light. It is a species of mold which I 

 have called Aspergillus aviarius. It was found inside the body of a 

 canary bird, the death of which it apparently caused. It helps 

 to illustrate the fact that there is scarcely a place in which or a 

 substance on which fungi of some sort may not grow. A full 

 description of this species has been given in another place. 



Very respectfully 



CHAS. H. PECK 



Albany, November 29, 1890 



