—i 9 — 



noted for forming an arch of each season's growth. This is L. 

 inundatum. . In similar places in the south will be found L. 

 alope cur aides, which is much like it, but larger. Northern speci- 

 mens of the latter are hard to separate from L. inundatum. Our 

 illustration is made from such a snecimen. 



Last and least there is L. Carolinianum, with a very short 

 sterile portion flat on the earth and a slender spike often not 

 more than three inches high. It ptows in bogs from New Jersey 

 southward. In the Eastern States there are a few more rare 

 species not here mentioned. If the young collector should 

 happen to find them, it will be easy to separate them by a refer- 

 ence to the nearest botanical manual. — W. N. C. 



FALL FRUITING OF OSMUNDA. 



By W. C. Steele. 



I have never seen but two species of Osmunda in Florida, 

 namely, O. regalis and O. cinnamomea. Dr. Chapman in his 

 "Flora of the Southern United States" says that O. Claytoniana is 

 found within the district covered by his botany, but does not 

 credit it to Florida, and I have never seen a specimen in this state. 

 Osmunda regalis grows around here, but not very abundantly. 

 Osmunda cinnamomea, on the other hand, is one of the most 

 common ferns in this section. Perhaps it would come third on 

 the list. Pteris aquilina var. caudata would come first, being 

 found almost everywhere. The second would be W oodwardia 

 Virginica. 



But this was not what I started to tell. Both species of Os- 

 munda send up a crop of fertile fronds in the spring, and Os- 

 munda cinnamomea has a habit of sending up a second crop of 

 fertile fronds in the fall. Not every clump, nor even one-half of 

 them. But enough to be very noticeable. 



In some places nearly or quite one-half the plants show this 

 fall crop of fertile fronds. In other places only here and there 

 a plant will have them. The editor of the Fern Bulletin in a pri- 

 vate note asked the question whether it might not be that the 

 sterile fronds on these fall fruiting clumps had been destroyed by 

 some accident. Such, however, is not the case. It may be, 

 probably is, the cause of three clumps of O. regalis sending up 

 fertile fronds in October. These three were within the fence of 



