o2 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



mum. The remaining- forms normally bear but a 

 single fertile spike to a branch. In forma mo no sta- 

 ck you the peduncles are usually not more than an inch 

 long and the spikes comparatively short. In forma 

 megastachyon the peduncles are two to several inches 

 long and the spikes correspondingly lengthened. In 

 the form brevispicatum found but once on a mountain 

 summit in New York, the spikes are remarkably short 

 and thick. This latter form is very evidently due to 

 the dwarfing of the plant by cold, and when we dis- 

 cover that the form monostachyon is a plant of the 

 far north and of mountain summits southward we be- 

 gin to suspicion that this form also has been produced 

 by the cold. The new form megastachyon is said to 

 have a range slightly south of the preceding and to 

 blend with it in sub-alpine situations. Evidently we 

 have here a connected series of forms that have been 

 modified somewhat in form by temperature and alti- 

 tude. 



Fertile Spikes ix Botrychium. — M. A. Chrysler 

 has adduced some further evidence to show that the 

 fertile spike in the Ophioglossaceae is in reality two 

 fused pinnae and incidentally has thrown some light 

 upon the production of extra spore-bearing spikes in 

 Botrychium. It appears that the normal fertile 

 spike in both Ophioglossum and Botrychium is made 

 it]), as indicated by the vascular structure, of the two 

 lowest pinnae fused into one. The allied genus 

 Aneimia shows its relationship by always having the 

 two fertile pinnae separate. When Botrychium pro- 

 duces more than one fertile spike it may be accounted 

 for in two ways: either the two pinnae have failed to 

 fuse, or else the next nearest, and normally sterile 

 pinnae have become sporebsaring'. An illustration of 



