BOTANY. 307 
plates, and is taken from the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- 
edge. 
APLECTRUM HYEMALE AGAIN.— Of the thirty plants of Aplectrum 
‘hyemale Nutt., transferred to my garden from the woods north of 
Detroit, on the 20th of April, 1873, mention of which has already 
been made in the Narura.isr, but two sent up flower scapes and 
of those but one came to perfection. The petals of this expanded 
on the 5th of June. The other scape proved abortive, the raceme 
not appearing from the sheath. 
At the date of October 1st most of the new leaves of my plants 
were from one inch to three inches above ground, while some were 
only just protruding from the earth. The plants seem to be quite 
healthy. 
Numerous communications, received from various places since 
the printing of my note, are mostly meme) of the opinion I 
had arrived at as to the rarity of the blossom 
As a generally accepted opinion is that Ga Sikes is not found 
in Massachusetts, I would here say that I have lately been informed 
on reliable authority that there is but one known station for it in 
that state, viz., Amherst, where rad two or three seasons it has 
been collected in flower.» 
I omitted mentioning in my former note that on June 30, 
1870, I collected: in our woods a single withered scape with pods, 
of the previous season, showing that the plant had flowered there 
in 1869.—Henry Gittman, Detroit, Michigan. ; 
DEVELOPMENT oF FERNS WITHOUT FertiLization.—At a late 
meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prof. 
Gray communicated a paper by his former pupil, Dr. W. 
Farlow, now in Germany, on the development of ferns from the 
prothallium irrespective of fertilization, by a sort of parthenogen- 
esis. The growth observed took place, not from an archegonium, 
but from some other part of the prothallium. 
LOBELIA SYPHILITICA VAR. ALBA.—In 1868 I found near Prince- 
ton, N. J., a single plant of Lobelia syphilitica v. alba, which must 
be very rare in this country. It was found among many other 
plants bearing blue flowers—though in this case they were perfectly 
white— and continued to bear white flowers for three years as did 
also the seedlings from this plant. After this time I lost sight of 
