asplenium ebenoides. (One-half natural size.) 



The stipe of ebenoides is rich purple and polished, as is also 

 the rachis on its under side, sometimes even beyond the middle of 

 the frond ; while the stipe of pinnatifidum is dull purplish only at 

 its base. A few of the lower pinnae of ebenoides are separate, while 

 in pinnatifidum there is a distinct green wing connecting them all. 

 Pinnatifidum retains its pinnatifid character to the. very tip, while 

 the fronds of ebenoides often show extreme jaggedness and irreg- 

 ularity at the base, and become wavy-margined or entire at the 

 apex. The pinna? of both ferns vary from broadly ovate and 

 obtuse to sharply lanceolate in outline. I have several prolifer- 

 ous fronds of ebenoides, but none of pinnatifidum. On the other 

 hand pinnatifidum bears much more fruit, its pinnee being often 

 entirely covered beneath. Other structural peculiarities of eben- 

 oides, that do not appear to the unaided eye, are mentioned in the 

 discussion of the interesting theorv of hybridity, to which we now 

 turn. 



Thirty years ago it was suggested that A. ebenoides mierht be 

 a hybrid between Asplenium platyncuron and Cawptosorus rhizo- 

 phyllus. In Eaton's "Ferns of North America," we read that it 



