116 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



Even normal plants exhibit a wavy margin on the pin- 

 nules and this, accentuated in various degrees, has 

 given us the most noteworthy variations of this fern. 

 Away back in 1873, when the Torrey Bulletin was a 

 little coverless eight-page pamphlet, Lewis H. Miller 

 found near Wading River on Long Island specimens 

 which he called the variety serratum We cannot say 

 that he named and published his variety as such things 

 go at present, for all that is said of it is said by the 

 editor as follows : "Mr. Miller reports * * * also 

 specimens of Asplcnium cbencum Ait., with the fronds 



Abnormal pinnae of Ebony Fern. 



wider than usual and the segments very sharply serrate 

 which he proposes to ticket at Dr. Gray's suggestion as 

 Var. serratum: ' Only access to Mr. Miller's specimens 

 which if preserved at all are probably in the herbariums 

 at Harvard or Columbia, can show how deeply the 

 fronds are serrated, and whether more recently de- 

 scribed forms are identical with his specimens. It is 

 likely, however, that the serration is not very extensive 

 else an acute fern student like Mr. Davenport would 

 not have given a new name to a deeply cut form. In 



