THE FERN BULLETIN 



15 



origin of these names lies far back in the history of our 

 race and long antedates botany as a science. The 

 ferns seem always to have puzzled the early plant col- 

 lectors. Lacking flowers and seeds but apparently re- 

 producing their kind in some mysterious way it was 

 but a step to ascribe magical properties to the "fern 

 seed." It was not until the middle of the sixteenth 

 century that the nature of fern spores was understood. 

 Before that time people seem to have imagined that 

 there was but one kind of fern, and that the ferns we 

 now call Nephrodium Mix-mas and Asplenium filix- 

 foemina were the male and female halves of the species. 



A Correction. — Through a mistake of the printer, 

 a paragraph relating to Cy stopfer is bidbifera was 

 omitted from "The Fern Flora of Pennsylvania" by 

 W. A. Poyser, published in the July 1909 number of 

 this magazine. The citation should read "On moist 

 rocks. Infrequent throughout." The editor failed to 

 discover the omission in time to rectify it. 



Pellaea atropurpurea var. Bushii. — Among the 

 additions to the new "Gray's Manual" we note a form 

 bearing the name at the head of this article. The plant 

 in question is distinguished from typical Pellaea atro- 

 purpurea by having the "stipes and rachises essential- 

 ly glabrous," a distinction which, we would be inclined 

 to think, hardly warrants the plant being called a form 

 much less a "var." in the sense this term is used in the 

 manual. Pellaea glabella Mett. is cited as a synonym. 



POLYPODIUM VULGARE F. BIFIDO-CRISTATUM. On 



August 1st, 1909, while searching for Poly podium 

 vulgare f. auritum, on a ledge situated abou thalf a 

 mile east of Watchic Pond, in Standish, Maine, I came 

 across three plants bearing very curious crested fronds. 

 One of these I sent to Mr. Clute for identification. He 



