— IOO — 



ment is an open question. Dampness certainly had no 

 such effect in shaded ravines, where the growth of 

 normal fronds was simply superb. 



Xo attempt was made to " peg down " the frond and 

 root the young plants, but the frond with its dainty 

 progeny was served up in its prime in behalf of science 

 and presented to the herbarium of the State University. 

 The roots will be rested and future growth carefully 

 watched to see if this special plant will ever do it again 

 and thus gain a right to name as well as fame. 



Pittsfovd Mills, Vf. 



OBSERVATIONS ON NORTH AMERICAN 

 PTERIDOPHYTES. II. 



By B. D. Gilbert. 



Asplenium ebexoides, R. R. Scott. The late James 

 Constable, of Utica. N. Y., was a great lover of ferns 

 and collected them wherever he lived or wherever he 

 went. He left a large folio volume filled with beautifully 

 preserved and mounted specimens, containing nearly all 

 the known species of Xorth America, many of which he 

 had gathered himself, while others were obtained through 

 purchase or exchange. Among these are some particu- 

 larly fine fronds of Asplenium ebenoides, gathered near 

 the Glendon Iron Works, two or three miles from Easton. 

 P ? a. The fronds are quite uniform in size, being 24 to 

 25 centimeters long, but they are peculiar in two respects. 

 Instead of being broadest at the base, as are most of the 

 other specimens I have seen, several of them have the 

 pinna? growing shorter toward the base, where they 

 are only about one-half the length of the middle pinnae. 

 Then again, instead of having two, or at most three pairs 

 of lower pinna? fully separated from the rest, these have 

 half a dozen, and in at least one case a dozen pairs fully 

 separated, with spaces 1 to i| centimeters between them. 

 Sometimes the pinna? are exactly alternate two-thirds of 

 the way up the frond, and two or three pairs of the lower 



