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the succeeding winter, and for a time seemed to be dead 

 or in a trance. However, late in 1914, a small bud was 

 produced in the centre of the apparently dead crown, 

 and this has now developed into a bunch of crowns with 

 fronds nine inches or so in length and breadth. On this 

 plant also this autumn I found a few sori, well developed 

 but all naked. Here is another Polypody masquerading, 

 this time, as a Polystichum. It occurred to me to see 

 whether this character of naked sori was shared by other 

 brachiatutns, as these form a well-defined group with several 

 characters in common. I only happened to have in my 

 possession one other brachiate angulave, viz. brachiato- 

 cristatum, Keall, and upon examining the sori of this they 

 were found to be all naked. 



Perhaps members who may have other brachiate Poly- 

 stichums will kindly look into this matter and report upon 

 it. I am not aware that a Polystichum having naked sori 

 has been previously reported ; Wollaston's P. ang. phcmosum 

 has sori with imperfect and irregular indusia, but the 

 indusia are certainly there. The moral is that those 

 characters upon which botanists have founded specific and 

 even generic distinctions are subject to variation like the 

 rest. 



F. W. Stansfield. 



Reading, October, 1916. 



HARDY FERNS IN WINTER. 



Our native hardy ferns belonging to two categories, viz. 

 those which are deciduous and die right down to the 

 ground in the late autumn, and those which are ever- 

 green and retain their fronds until the succeeding 

 season ; it is evident that, under glass at any rate, the 

 latter may be arranged to preserve to a considerable 



