—52— 



latum ever issued. The book also contained a list of the ferns 

 and fern allies arranged according to their time of fruiting in New 

 England, which required long and careful observation to pro- 

 duce. He was also the discoverer of the fact that the external 

 covering of the macrospores in Isoetcs is almost pure silica. 



During recent years Mr. Dodge has paid a great deal of at- 

 tention to general botany and has frequently delivered lectures 

 on such subjects as "Ferns." "Weeds." "Poisonous Plants," etc.. 

 in his own and neighboring towns. In his investigations of the 

 genus Isoetcs he discovered /. Batoni, and another species was 

 named in his honor. — W. N. C. 



FERN VARIETIES. 



If I may once more claim a little space in vindication of the 

 study of varieties. I should like to add a few words to my thanks 

 to the editor for his fair and square expressions of his point of 

 view, though it fails to convert me. In the first place I think the 

 editor should keep an open mind and consider that among the 

 many members of the Fern Chapter tastes may vary and further- 

 more that in studying any branch of natural knowledge it is well 

 to take all observed phenomena into consideration and not ex- 

 clude a certain set upon the gratuitous assumption that they are 

 "due to the slipping of a cog somewhere in nature's machinery." 

 One of the burning questions of the day among botanists is the 

 cause of variation in plants and some of the more eminent 

 European botanists are beginning to believe that sports may have 

 played a material role in the evolution of species. Another ques- 

 tion is the relative variability of plants under natural conditions 

 and under cultivation, and in this particular connection I may re- 

 fer your readers to an article of mine in the Gardener's Chronicle 

 of Dec. 19, "Variations Wild and Cultural," which is based en- 

 tirely upon the 50 odd years' experience gathered by our British 

 fern hunters and constantly recorded. Here then we perceive 

 that this very study which is deprecated in unmistakable terms, 

 is likely to prove a scientific factor of great value, since abso- 

 lutely no other family of plants has been studied for so long or 

 so thoroughly so as to form a reliable mass of data bearing on 

 the point at issue. I may also point out that it is precisely due to 



