44 Joint Buu^etin 8 



Yellow- Flowered Veratnim 



Several plants of Veratrum bearing yellow flowers have been 

 located in a meadow near the village of Woodstock. They differ in 

 many particulars from the yellow flowered plant found in Plymouth 

 two years ago; the flowers are less brilliant in color; the leaves not 

 at all glaucus — quite like the common form in fact. The plants, while 

 less robust than the common form, are not as delicate as the one from 

 Plymouth. They are situated in wet, or at least damp places, and 

 bloomed considerably later than the common form. Three or four 

 plants of the common form are to be seen in adjacent fields, but none 

 are in the immediate neighborhood of the yellow plants. It is hoped 

 that they can be observed next year during the blooming season. It 

 will not be possible to study them after maturing fruit, as the fields 

 will soon be cut. — E. M. Kittredge. 



Three-Toed Woodpecker in Mendon 



Twenty-five years ago, before the conifers were cut off by lumber- 

 men, it was not unusual to see one or more three-toed woodpeckers in 

 the vicinity of Rutland, especially in the winter, and both the white- 

 backed and black-backed species have been found breeding on Mount 

 Pico in Sherburne by George H. Ross of Rutland. These birds have 

 nearly disappeared from Central Vermont, however, and it gave the 

 writer a great deal of pleasure to see a male of the black-backed species 

 in Mendon on September 25, 1921. The bird was observed at a distance 

 of 20 feet and it was feeding on a dead soft-wood tree, its favorite 

 habitat. Although I have been afield a great deal in every month of 

 the year, the only other records I have for three-toed woodpeckers for 

 two decades are as follows: April 29, 1906; white-backed, Bald Moun- 

 tain in Mendon, on dead spruce; June 12, 1912, white-backed, Mount 

 Horrid, Rochester, on dead spruce, apparently breeding. — George L. 

 Kirk. 



Fern Culture 



Miss Nancy Darling of Sky Farm, Woodstock, reports growing suc- 

 cessfully young ferns, sent from Florida. Polystichum adiantiforme 

 (Forst) J. Sm., is a large luxuriant fern native to the West Indies and 

 South America and having deeply notched, twice-pinnate fronds of a 

 dark green color, glistening, coriaceous and evergreen. It is much 



