146 Forty- FOURTH Report on the State Museum 



Carex folliculata L. 



An unusual form of this sedge grows on " Beaver meadow " near 

 Morehouseville. The stems are stout, erect, only one to two feet 

 high, very leafy ; the pistillate spikes are three to four, approximate, 

 all on short erect peduncles. 



Carex crinita Lam. 



A large form with three staminate spikes all fertile at 

 the apex was collected at Wilmurt lake, Hamilton county. Yariety 

 minor Boott was collected at Sylvan Beach, Oneida county. 



Polypodium vulgare L. var. cristatum Lowe. 



(Plate 1. figs. 1 to4.) 



Rock City, Dutchess county. October. 



Fronds of this very beautiful and rare variety were sent me by Mr. 

 Charles A. Coons. I afterwards visited the locality and found the fern 

 growing in a small patch, probably six or eight feet long by one to 

 two feet wide. All the fronds in this patch exhibited the peculiar 

 character of those first sent me. Fronds of the usual form were 

 growing near by but did not mingle with these, nor were any inter- 

 mediate forms seen. The fronds are beautifully crested, being one 

 to three times dichotomously or somewhat irregularly divided at the 

 apex, and each segment is dilated at its apex and projects in two to 

 six lobes, these lobes manifesting a disposition to extend themselves 

 along the upper margin of the segment. Sometimes the branches 

 at the apex are a little twisted or distorted and form a sort of 

 rosette. The ultimate ones terminate in lobes similar to those at the 

 apiceK of th<e segments. The fronds are fertile. 



This variety was originally discovered in Ireland by Mr. Henry S. 

 Perry. It was figured and described by Lowe in his work on New 

 and Rare Ferns. This figure exhibits well the dilation and lobing 

 of the apices of the segments in our plant, but shows the crested 

 branching apex of the frond very poorly, for it is represented as 

 scarcely more than bifurcate. His description reads thus : " Like 

 Aspidium filix-mas var. cristatum^ the present plant has multifid 

 or tasseled apices on each pinna, the midrib of the frond dividing 

 and branching about an inch below the apex of the frond, as well as 

 the midrib of each pinna about a quarter of an inch below the apex 

 of each pinna." 



"The present variety, from the points of each frond being 

 branched and crested and all the divisions terminating in crested 

 tufts so as to form a frilled margin, is both distinct and beautiful." 



