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Fern Bulletin has also been largely instrumental in introducing 

 into America, the practice of giving form names to such plants as 

 do not attain to the rank of species or sub-species. Formerly it 

 was the custom to consider each lesser variation of a plant as a 

 sub-species or variety, resulting in the mixing of seasonal, acci- 

 dental and geographical forms in a very heterogeneous category. 

 The magazine has catered to no school, and whenever possib.e 

 has printed both sides of every question, leaving its readers free 

 to judge for themselves. 



It has also fallen to the Bulletin's lot to be a pioneer in 

 making the study of mosses popular. The Bryologist, now a suc- 

 cessful separate publication, is an own child of the Bulletin's, 

 and for two years was published with it. It was while the two 

 publications were thus combined that the Sullivant Moss Chapter, 

 an organization similar to the Fern Chapter, was formed. 



Many other events have occurred in the past decade to make 

 it remarkable in the annals of fern study. At its beginning, As- 

 plenium ebenoides was firmly entrenched as a species, but with 

 occasional suggestions regarding its hybridity ; now it is a proven 

 hybrid. Onoclea sensibilis f. obtusilobata was by some considered 

 a species, by others a good variety ; now it is known to be a mere 

 form that can be produced at will. The observations that have 

 contributed to a correct conception of these forms have thrown 

 much light upon aberrant forms in general and placed our ideas 

 of the limitation of species upon a much more stable foundation. 

 Ten years ago, the lists of ferns were scarcely more than mere 

 lists of names. Since then there have been published three com- 

 plete lists of the ferns and fern allies with distribution and often 

 common names and synonomy given. 



At the beginning of the decade there were no American fern 

 books of a popular nature ; now we have Mrs. Parsons' excellent 

 "How to Know the Ferns," and my own "Fern Collector's Guide." 

 and "Our Ferns in Their Haunts." Mr. Dodge's valuable, though 

 more technical little manual on "The Ferns and Fern Allies of 

 New England" belongs to this period, as does also Miss Price's 

 "Fern Collector's Handbook." There have also been numerous 

 lesser publications on ferns issued, among which should be men- 

 tioned Shimek's "Ferns of Nicaragua," Underwood's "Review of 



