BOTANY. 305 
in which the upper part is fertile, having the usual very narrow 
linear divisions, while the lower part, barren, has all the character- 
istics of the sterile frond with its “ obovate decurrent and crenately 
toothed or incised segments.” The abnormal frond is also quite 
as tall-as the fertile fronds, which in this fern, it is well known, 
have always much taller stipes than the sterile fronds, lifting them 
high above the latter. 
I was much gratified to behold this dainty graceful fern growing. 
in its native haunts—its isolated home. It was now in full per- 
fection, which was not the case at the time of my first visit to the 
island, in May. I observed that it generally grew in clefts or on 
shelves of the outcropping ridges of metamorphosed sandstone, 
partially. shaded by trees, and always facing the south. It was 
invariably surrounded with a mass of débris largely formed of the 
decayed fronds of numerous previous generations of the fern, 
while the straw-like stipes of many years remained erect and dry 
encircling the plant below, and no doubt affording it valuable pro- 
tection.— Henry GILLMAN, Detroit, Michigan. 
Rumex PATIENTIA L.— This rumex is not mentioned in Wood's 
Botany, and the brief reference to it in the last edition of Gray’s 
Manual in connection with Amherst, Mass., suggésts that it is 
comparatively rare. It may therefore be interesting to botanists, 
to know that it is not uncommon in Amherst, and at least three of 
the neighboring towns, growing by the roadside or near dwellings. 
And when the writer was at Highgate Springs in northwestern 
Vermont during the past season, it was everywhere as abundant 
and apparently as much at home as any of our introduced ru- 
mices.— H. G. J. 
Tur Nortuernmost FLoweRING Prants.—Dr. Bessels, of H all’s 
Arctic expedition, collected according to a note in “Nature” by 
Dr. J. ooker, four plants from the east side of Smith’s Sound 
in latitude 82° N. They are Draba alpina L., Cerastium alpinum 
L., Taraxacum dens-leonis Def. var. and Poa flexuosa Wahl. This 
is the most northern locality where any phanerogamous g 
tion has been found. 
THE SMALL-FLOWERED PARNASSIA IN Mıcnrean.— In the summer 
of 1866, I made the interesting discovery of the small-flowered 
grass of Parnassus (Parnassia parviflora DC.), at White-fish Bay, 
Wisconsin, on the lg pee - Lake Michigan. The 
AMER. NATURALIST, VO 
