THE FERN BULLETIN 



a sterile pinnae bearing a few sporangia was recently 

 published in this journal. The Botrychium sporo- 

 phyte. then, is seen to be merely a spore bearing 

 structure with an expanded portion of one to several 

 pinnae devoted to the work of photosynthesis. When 

 necessary, these expanded green portions may be 

 changed to spore-producing organs. Under this view 

 of the case, we must regard the "frond" of the 

 Ophioglossaceae to be half leaf, half sporophyll. with 

 the leaf-like portion derived from potentially sporo- 

 geneous tissue. It seems to be an easy change back to 

 spore-bearing, hence the frequency with which grape- 

 ferns bearing more than the normal number of fertile 

 parts are reported. The structure of the Ophioglos- 

 saceae has always puzzled botanists. It was once 

 thought, and the idea is still held by many botanists, 

 that Ophioglossum is not so far removed from the 

 sporophyte of mosses, having simply developed roots 

 and more green tissue, but the investigations of 

 Chrysler seem to show that the aerial parts of Ophio- 

 glossum represent a true leaf and if this is true, since 

 spore-bearing parts came before leaves, the Ophio- 

 glossaceae must represent a group of considerable 

 complexity. In Chryslers opinion the Bo try Mums 

 have been derived from fern-like ancestors and are not 

 the simple fernworts that they are frequently sup- 

 posed to be. 



Ax Aberraxt Osmunda. — In this magazine for 

 January. 1909 four aberrant Osmund as were de- 

 scribed. One of the^e. to which no name was given, 

 from Xew Britain Connecticut was peculiar for hav- 

 ing sporangia on the backs of normally sterile pinnules 

 where they were supported by triangular green flaps. 

 Mr. H. C. Bigelow. r.ne of the discoverers, reports 



