THE FERX BULLETIN 



7 



I found that my good bird-glass proved valuable aid 

 when it came to the count. Indeed, such an instru- 

 ment will often prove valuable to the botanist whether 

 or not he is like the writer, interested in birds as well as 

 plants, saving him many steps sometimes a climb. 



So far as the writer knows, this fern has only been 

 noted in central and northern Ohio, the present station 

 now carrying it far to the northeast. According to 

 Prof. L. S. Hopkins' "Fern Flora of Ohio" this species 

 has been collected in Fairfield. Hocking, Lawrence and 

 Logan counties. 



Ellsworth Station, Ohio. 



6. 



THE FRONDS OF LYeOPODIUM. 



By Willard X. Clute. 

 There are fifteen or twenty species of the so-called 

 climbing fern family (Lygodium) in the tropics, 

 though climbing species in other families are common 

 enough, and but one teal climbing fern in the fern 

 flora of the United States. A few minutes study is 

 sufficient to show that all these climbers may be di- 

 vided into two groups : those in which the main stem 

 ascends other vegetation by means of rootlets or by 

 twining, and are thus true climbing stems, and those 

 in which the main stem is under ground and sends up 

 what are commonly regarded as climbing leaves. It 

 seems absurd to call these latter, leaves, however. 

 Those who describe our species hesitate at mentioning 

 leaves that are forty or fifty feet long, and commonly 

 do not give their dimensions. The error comes from 

 trying to fit all species to one hard and fast manner of 

 description. Having agreed, in the case of our com- 

 mon ferns, to call the part underground a stem and the 

 parts that rise from it. leaves, there is nothing left to 



