—47— 



additional record for Louisiana. Specimens in the National 

 Herbarium apparently of this species were collected by Mr. C. R. 

 Ball at Alexandria, Rapides County, May 29, 1899; No. 492. The 

 plant is said to be "common; creeping in ditches.'* 



Phegopteris Robertiana (Hoffm.) A. Braun. — A letter re- 

 ceived from Dr. Ascherson, of Berlin, some time ago called my 

 attention to the fact that Hoffman's Polypodium Robertianum 

 was first transferred to Phegopteris by Alexander Braun in 

 Ascherson's "Flora der Provinz Brandenburg" (1859). The 

 specific name Robertianum was applied by Hoffman on account of 

 the fern's faint odor (odor debilis) of Geranium Robertianum. 



AsplEnium ebenoides. — There remain in my possession a 

 number of reprints of "Notes on the Validity of Asplenium eben- 

 oides as a Species," which I shall be glad to send upon request to 

 members of the Chapter who have not already received copies. 



Washington, D. C. 



HELPS FOR THE BEGINNER. 



VII. — The Scouring Rushes. 



No sooner does a tinge of green begin to creep into the 

 vernal landscape than the scouring rushes (Bquisetum) bestir 

 themselves. Almost as soon as the first flowers are blooming we 

 may find on moist warm banks, especially railway embankments, 

 the inflorescence of the earliest of the species which often occur 

 in such numbers as to give a tinge of its own color to the land- 

 scape. These sturdy erect spikes of warm flesh color are familiar 

 to the majority of those who have passed a season in the country, 

 though it is possible many have regarded them as curious fungoid 

 growths not to be associated with the more decorative green 

 fronds that later appear in the same places. These early spikes 

 are not really flowers, although they do bear in the cone-like tips 

 a copious supply of green spores from which the new plants 

 eventually grow. 



The scouring rushes, or horse tails, as several of the species 

 are called, are built on a very singular plan. The 

 stems are hollow and made up of short joints, one end 



