—65— 



Miss Nellie Mirick places on record a new station for Dryop- 

 teris simulata in New York. Specimens which Mr. Davenport 

 pronounces good simulata were collected by her at Oneida several 

 years ago. 



Regarding Scolopendrium, Mrs. Thomas Baxter Gresham of 

 Baltimore writes that she has a plant of this species, brought 

 from the old world, that has grown vigorously and fruited freely 

 for several years. She has been able to raise a number of plants 

 from the sporelings that have self sown on an adjacent wall. 



Does the texture of Asplenium ebenoides vary with the lo- 

 cality? In the January Bulletin, Prof. Murrill says the texture 

 of this is similar to A pinnatifidum Miss Sadie F. Price writes 

 that in her locality pinnatifidum is one of the heaviest in texture, 

 while all the specimens of ebenoides she has seen are very thin. 



In favorable situations all of our ferns occasionally produce 

 fronds of unusual size. At Swarthmore, Pa., Mr. H. P. Wells 

 found fronds of Onoclea sensibilis nearly five feet high. The 

 editor of this journal has seen in Southern New York, fronds of 

 the Bracken, each of which formed a green triangle with sides 

 more than a yard long. In the same locality, the Ostrich fern 

 commonly attains a height of six feet or more. 



On June 12th, '96, I found about thirty fronds of Osmunda 

 cinnamomea frondosa by the side of the road, where the bushes 

 had been cut away and burned last fall. They were the finest I 

 ever saw. Every root where a fire had been showed from three 

 to six, and on one even the sterile fronds had scattered sporangia 

 on the edges of their pinnules. I examined a great many neigh- 

 boring plants, with the result that I found but one frondosa, and 

 that not very good. — A. A. Eaton. 



In the exhilaration incident to the collection and study of 

 rarities, some of us are apt to underestimate the importance of 

 the common species. The very abundance of what we may term 

 our "every day" plants seems to argue their importance in the 

 divine economy and to give them a dignity that should make 

 them subjects of especial study. Those who may think their 

 neighborhoods poor in good varieties of ferns, should devote time 

 to those that occur, even though they be the commonest. We 

 may be sure that they have secrets which they will unfold to the 

 eye of love, and which it will be a delight to know.— C. F. Saun- 

 ders. 



