open places in marshes or swamps, which at certain times of the 

 year are more or less inundated. The soil is sandy, overlaid by 

 a thick accumulation of rich leaf mould. Judging from the 

 character of the growth in the surrounding swamps, the clear- 

 ings were also at one time covered by a growth of small 

 birches, poplars, red maples and other swamp loving shrubs 

 and small trees. The most important plant associates of D. 

 simulata here are Woodwardia Virginica, Dryopteris the- 

 lypteris, Athyrium filix-fcemina, Osmunda cin?iamomea, Carex 

 folliculata, and Decodon verticillatus. 



There are many swamps of similar conditions throughout 

 central New York and I believe that a careful search will reveal 

 D. simulata in many of them. 



Oneida, N. Y. 



FAIRY RINGS FORMED BY OSMUNDA, 



MR. T. C. BUCHHEISTER recently called my attention to 

 the fact that the various species of Osmunda not only 

 produce their fronds in circular crowns, but that the dif- 

 ferent plants are themselves arranged in larger circles. In a re- 

 cent trip of several miles through a country where these ferns 

 grow in abundance, I improved the opportunity to put this matter 

 to the test and was surprised to find that the plants are rarely 

 disposed in any other form where the conditions permit them to 

 develop naturally. Walking into a thicket of the plumy fronds, 

 one finds himself surrounded by a fairly regular circle of the 

 plants. So here we have another form of the 4i fairy ring," if it 

 is permissible to associate such tall and sturdy plants with the 

 fairies. 



Dr. Robinson, in Rhodora, has noted similar fairy rings in 

 Lycopodium inundatum and explains them upon the supposition 

 that the different plants move outward from the centre in search 

 of fresh soil and new food supplies, and so eventually form the 

 circles. This explanation, owing to the way in which the ferns 

 grow, would seem scarcely to answer for the Osmunda circles. It 

 is more likely that each is the progeny of a single plant which has 

 given off branches from time to time, all of which moved outward 

 from the place of origin. It was noted that a line through the 

 plants in a clump made an oval rather than circular figure, and it 

 is conjectured that the original plant started at the broad end of 

 this oval and grew along the major axis directly across the centre 



