A NEW FORM OF THE CHRISTMAS FERN. 



By Wiluard N. Ceute. 



At the recent meeting of fern students near Forestville, 

 Conn., Mrs. C. S. Phelps, of Salisbury, Conn., exhibited a most 

 curious and interesting variety of the Christmas fern which she 

 subsequently asked me to describe. In this form the tip of each 

 pinna for about one-third of its length is folded backward along 

 the line of the midrib and grown together and the entire tip is 

 then curved over toward the rachis on the upper side of the 

 frond. Looking at the frond from the upper surface, each pin- 

 nule presents a loop-like extremity that gives it a most charac- 

 teristic appearance as if it were just unrolling. At first glance 

 this form appeared to be simply a freak, but Mrs. Phelps assured 

 us she had found it in two places in Salisbury and later I had the 

 good fortune to discover another plant of the same form in a 

 piece of woods near Forestville, Conn., some fifty miles or more 

 from the previously known stations. The plant thus seems not 

 only widely distributed but fairly common and no doubt other 

 fern collectors will later report it. While it differs from the 

 normal Christmas fern in unimportant characters, and cannot be 

 considered a species or sub-species, we believe it should have a 

 name and therefore describe it as follows : 



POLYSTICHUM ACROSTICHOIDES forma RECURVATUM. Root- 



stock and frond as in the type with the exception that the edges 

 of the pinnae are reflexed and grown together along the line 

 of the midrib for about one-third their length, beginning at the 

 tip ; tips of the pinnae recurved toward the upper surface of the 

 frond for about half their length. Type from Salisbury, Conn., 

 and now in the author's herbarium, collected by Mrs. C. S. 

 Phelps. Some of these specimens were in fruit and an effort 

 will be made to raise other plants from the spores. 



IS ASPLENIUM LANCEUM AMERICAN? 



About eight years ago I bought from Reasoner Brothers, 

 Oneco, Fla., some plants listed as Poly podium Szvartzii from 

 Key Largo. On receipt I found them to be Asplenium lanceum, 



