54 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



that this season the plants have returned to the nor- 

 mal form. It is quite evident that the abnomality 

 shown last year was in line with the form which has 

 been named fvondosa. It will be interesting- to know 

 if the plants exhibit the abnormality again in other 

 •seasons. 



Complete Set Changes Hands. — The complete 

 set of Fern Bulletin owned by the late James A. 

 Graves has been purchased by the University of Illi- 

 nois and will be preserved where it will be accessible 

 to fern students in the future. This is apparently the 

 only complete set in Illinois outside of the office of the 

 magazine. The set of the Field Columbian Museurn 

 is nearly complete and the sets of the John Crerar 

 Library and the Library of Northwestern University 

 are complete from the beginning of volume 4. 



Stolons of Nephrolepis. — Rev. James A. Bates 

 sends us a coil of slender cordlike growths taken from 

 a specimen of Xcphrolcpis cxaltata in his possession to 

 illustrate another way in which ferns may travel. 

 These outgrowths are often several feet long and 

 quite numerous. Whenever they find favorable spots 

 they may take root and produce new plants. In other 

 species of Xcphrolcpis similar cord-like runners are 

 sent out and form not only roots but tubers, where 

 they come in contact with the soil. These runners are 

 essentially stolons, really branches of the plant. The 

 facility with which ihey are developed by many 

 species of Nephrolepis seems due to the place in which 

 these ferns naturally grow. In their native haunts 

 they are usually found on old logs or the branches of 

 trees. Xear by are numerous good locations for plants 

 if the parent plant can only reach them. Spores are 



