growth in their clefts. This I recognized as a fern with which I 

 had not even a bowing acquaintance. The pinules resembled, in 

 miniature, those of the large, cultivated maiden-hair fern, but 

 there the similarity ended, as neither the texture nor the sori 

 were those of Adiantutn. The specimens, which were so tightly 

 wedged that they could only be dislodged with the point of a 

 scissors, averaged from two to four inches in height, with smooth, 

 evergreen, triangular fronds and confluent fruit dots. Upon 

 nearer acquaintance my fern turned out to be Aspieniutn ruta- 

 7nuraria, whose existence was unknown to the local authorities. 



Near these rocks was another cliff entirely covered with 

 vegetation, the dainty Herb Robert being most in evidence. Three 

 feet on one side of this the rock was carpeted with Ccunptosorus 

 rhizophyllus, which one could almost see walking. I counted 

 thirty distinct plants in a patch four by seven inches. At the 

 foot of this same cliff we found the maiden hair spleenwort 

 (Aspienium Trichomanes) , while the maiden hair rioted every- 

 where. — Pauline Kaufman, New York City. 



DO OPHIOGLOSSUMS REST FOR A SEASON? 



HE failure of Ophioglossum arenarium to appear in any- 



thiDg like its usual quantity this season at its original loca- 



tion at Holly Beach, N. J., caused me to conclude that the 

 genus takes a year of recuperation. There were not more than 

 four plants in the colony when visited just one week later than 

 that of its discovery, July 4th, 1S97, and those were perfect, 

 having both sterile and fertile fronds, and two of them were 

 from the same bud on the rootstock, a characteristic of the species. 

 No small sterile fronds were found at all. 



All physical conditions, as far as could be ascertained, were 

 about as they had been for several years. The colony had suf- 

 fered its greatest devastation in 1897, but that had little or no 

 effect on the plants the following year. In fact, I feel safe in say- 

 ing that last year no one visited it but myself, when I removed 

 but few of them. This failure to appear during the year I noticed 

 in O. vulgatum in 1S97. when I visited two well-known localities 

 to make living comparisons, but failed to find trace in either of 

 them. I would like to have the views of fern students and col- 

 lectors.— Joseph Crawford, Philadelphia. 



