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It is only with an abundance of material and field notes that 

 any valid conclusions can be reached, and the readers of the Fern 

 Bulletin can render an excellent service in bringing this mate- 

 rial together — L. M. Underwood, New York City 



GET IT IN YOUR EYE. 



IT is a curious fact that things are more easily discovered a 

 second time than the first. I suppose this is owing to an in- 

 voluntary mental noting of the peculiarities of the locality. 

 For instance, I found Ophioglossum vulgatum in a meadow with 

 Habenaria lacera and a small panicum last July. It was scarcely 

 as tall as the grass and the discovery was partially accidental. I 

 afterwards found it in three other localities, two when not look- 

 ing specialty for it. I must have passed over this many times as 

 it was within a stone s throw of my garden. The last locality 

 attracted my attention from the road by the amount of Sporobo- 

 lus serotinus growing there. It was in early September. I 

 crossed a cranberry bog and found about an acre literally covered 

 with Ophioglossum. 



Lycopodium inundatum may be found among the same grass 

 with Viola lanceolata. I have repeatedly found it by seeing the 

 " call" plants and hunting for it. The variety Bigelovii grows 

 best in cranberry bogs ; in fact, the type locality at Chebacco 

 Lake, Essex, Mass., is a cranberry bog. with considerable sphag" 

 num in it. This so-called variety is merely a luxuriant form of 

 the type. In looking for Isoetes. a muddy bottom is a sign of I. 

 echinospora Braunii ; sand of I. e. Boottii and I. Tuckermani. 

 The peculiar reddish-purple color of the latter, with its leaves in 

 an ascending spiral, distinguishes it immediately. I. Engelmanni 

 grows in shallow brooks in clay. Woodwardia Virginica is likely 

 to be found in deep peat near a swamp; I found my first last year, 

 and now know seven localities, one beside a road within half a 

 mile of home. W. areolata often grows near the latter, but I 

 have never found it mixed. Dryopteris simulata grows in its ut- 

 most luxuriance — often three feet high — amongst areolata. 



If you have hunted for a plant and despaired of finding it, go, 

 if possible, to a locality where it grows and see it growing, and 

 try again. I have found many rarities by noting the " call " 

 plants while riding by on a bicycle. — Alvah A. Eaton, Seabrook, 

 N. H. 



