—52— 



arrow from the bowstring in archery to the preparation of a trans- 

 verse section of a Sphagnum leaf. He was most generous to all 

 who deserved it and to many who did not. He was simple in his 

 life, and at his death all who knew him mourned him most 

 sincerely. 



University of California. 



MARSILIA AT NIGHT. 



By C. F. Saunders. 



IN the Botanical Garden of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 Marsilia quadrifolia was planted some time ago in the pond 

 devoted to aquatics, and is thriving finely, both on the grassy 

 bank by the water's edge and for a distance of several feet out in 

 the pond, where the leaves float in company with the fronds of 

 Salvinia nutans. One clear night in September, when the moon 

 was shining, I walked through the garden and was interested to 

 find the whole colony of Marsilia fast asleep in the moonlight — 

 all at least except the floating leaves, and these, too, would doubt- 

 less have folded up but for the underlying water. The approach 

 of night has the same slumberous effect upon the leaflets as upon 

 t iose of an oxalis, although the manner of their folding is some- 

 what different In Marsilia, according to my observation at least, 

 the leaflets lay themselves quite evenly one on top of another, so 

 that the result is as one leaflet— a tiny fan nodding at the summit 

 of the stalk. 



Philadelphia. 



WHY DRYOPTERIS AND NOT LASTREA? 



By Lucien M. Underwood. 



THE tenor of two or three recent notes in The Fern Bulletin 

 leads me to correct some impressions there conveyed re- 

 garding the nomenclature of our common ferns. Changes 

 of nomenclature are always unfortunate and always to be re- 

 gretted, but proper changes are made not as a matter of conven- 

 ience, but of law. Had botanists always followed a definite prin- 

 ciple instead of taking up whatever name they happened to find 

 without inquiring into its priority rights or even caring for them, 

 we would now be relieved of much of the change that has become 

 necessary to conform to principle- Asa Gray stated in a nutshell 



