302 General Notes. [ March, 
long. The so-called flower, therefore, was almost half its full 
size. The flower and peduncle of Anemone hepatica were 4™™ 
long; of Sanguinaria canadensis, 3°™' of Arisema dracontium, 
mm. The flowers of Trillium grandiflorum was 8™™ long. 
The hibernaculum of Aralia quinquefolia in all the plants ex- 
amined was composed of three scales, the innermost entirely 
sheathing next year’s flowering stalk and also a small bud. The 
latter is in the axil of the scale, and is destined to produce the 
flowering stalk two years hence. The leaf of the flower stalk 
which is opposite to the last scale is always the largest. When 
the leaves occur in whorls of fours, as was frequent in the speci- 
mens at hand, the relative stage of development of the leaves 
and their position suggested a contracted spiral of leaves rather 
than a single and sessile twice-compound leaf, as suggested by 
Gray (Manual, p. 199). The flowers could easily be determined, 
the outermost flowers being developed the most. In view of the 
early development in bud of the flowers of spring plants, need 
their early appearance in spring be surprising? Aralia guinque- 
folia flowers in July, and in August of the same year shows 
ripened berries and the parts of next year’s plant! Is it not 
rather surprising that with the small amount of vegetation it is 
compelled to produce, it does not flower much earlier ?—Aug. F. 
Foerste, Granville, Ohio. ; l 
A SIGNIFICANT Discovery.—In a recent number of Nature, 
Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer calls attention to a most interesting 
and significant discovery in the development of certain ferns. 
Some months ago Mr. E. T. Druery observed in Asplenium filix- 
fæmina, var. clarissima, that the sporangia “ did: not follow their 
ordinary course of development, but assuming a more vegetative 
character, developed more or less well-defined prothallia,” which 
ultimately bore antheridia and archegonia. “From these adven- 
titious prothallia the production of seedling ferns has been ob- 
served to take place in a perfectly normal way.” The prothallia 
were subsequently observed by Mr. F. O. Bower to be furnished 
with root-hairs 
The last-named observer was so fortunate as to discover a still 
more remarkable development upon Polystichum ( Aspidium) an- 
_ gulare, var. pulcherrima. Here the apex of the pinnules grew ou 
into an irregular prothallium, upon which antheridia and arche- 
gonia were clearly made out. 
: It is a genuine pleasure to note such discoveries, for they are 
just what we have reason to expect. If, now, so great a change 
in the ordinary course of development as this is, can take place 
so suddenly, does it not, to say the least, argue in favor ot the 
_ possibility of similar changes in the past having given rise to the 
-~ Phanerogams? What essential difference is there between these 
_ aposporous ferns and the lower phanerogams? The most remark- 
