—30— 



White Mountains, and from Charlotte, Vt. The conditions for 

 its growth seem to be presented in many places in western Mas- 

 sachusetts and in Ontario, and along the wooded belt to Minne- 

 sota, and I have no doubt it will be found over most of this area 

 as soon as collectors begin to search for it. 

 Seabrook, N. H. 



STUDY OF OPHIOGLOSSUM, 



By Mrs. E. G. Britton. 



MRS. BRITTON stated that her observations on Ophioglos- 

 sum were already in print in several journals, and as the 

 session had been a long one and it was already late, she 

 would omit any formal presentation of the subject, being content 

 to show the specimens belonging to the herbarium of Columbia 

 University to Mr. Gilbert and compare them with Mr. Daven- 

 port's. Mr. Alvah A. Eaton had brought some very interesting 

 small forms, closely resembling the specimens from Italy col- 

 lected by Rigo, preserved in the Gray Herbarium, and had dupli- 

 cates for distribution. Mrs. Britton stated that the modern ten- 

 dency of ecological studies in botany as illustrated by Kerner 

 von Marilaun's " Pflanzen-leben " and the " Plant Geography of 

 Nebraska " by Clements and Pound, showed that field observa- 

 tions of living species, to study their adaptations to their environ- 

 ment, and the recent awakening of interest in nature study in all 

 the public schools, was bringing up a race of young students who 

 did not care so much for the name of a plant as for what it did. 

 In that light she looked on Ophioglossum arenarium not so much 

 as a "new species" as a form of Ophioglossum which had orig- 

 inated from O. vulgatum, but from living in sandy soil near the 

 sea had acquired a iieshy tissue, a stunted growth, and a gre- 

 garious habit, which differed considerably from its relatives in 

 moist meadows and woods. She said it did not matter so much 

 to the younger generation whether plants were ranked as species, 

 varieties, races or forms, when it was remembered what different 

 conceptions of these terms are held in classifying living things 

 from man down to the bacteria. But what did matter was that 

 all variations and adaptations to environment should be recog- 

 nized. The aim of all modern teachers is to train the eye to see 

 differences and the mind to recognize the truth, in all things. If 

 the definition of a species as given by Dr. Farlow in his address 



