Most of these were in great abundance — the rarest one being 

 Asplenium angustifolium. As the woods are being cut down 

 where it grew, it will doubtless soon disappear, if it has not done 

 so already. But in another part of the town it grows in great 

 profusion, in company with Aspidium Goldianum. Indeed, the 

 luxuriance of these two ferns in this second locality, exceeds any- 

 thing I have ever seen elsewhere. 



A walk in another direction was made memorable by finding 

 Asplenium Ruta-muraria and Pellaea gracilis, each of them in 

 great abundance. 



Now in view of this long list of ferns, may not Dorset claim 

 the first rank in point of variety ? — Emily Hitchcock Terry, Smith 

 College, Northampton, Mass. 



DEVELOPMENT OF FERNS FROM SPORES. 



A field in which 

 very little has been 

 done, but one which 

 has much of inter- 

 est in it for the stu- 

 dent, is found in 

 watching a young 

 fern as it develops 

 from the spore. 

 Miss H. D. Hutch- 

 inson who has been 

 experimenting i n 

 this way with Pter- 

 is serrulata, sends 

 a drawing showing 

 the development of 

 the first five fronds 

 which is herewith 

 reproduced. She 

 writes that obser- 

 vation of numerous 

 plants has shown 

 that the first three or four fronds are always produced after the 

 same pattern. The seventh frond often fruits. We are also in- 

 debted to Miss Hutchinson for a series of plants showing these 

 various stages of development. 



