-8 7 - 



adhere, thus often giving a puberulent appearance. Strangely- 

 enough I find no mention of this character in any available book. 

 This does not exhaust the differences, but is sufficient, it appears 

 to me, to demonstrate the specific value of our plant. 



During the past year Mr. Joseph C. Love, of Berkeley, Cal.> 

 has sent me fronds taken from a plant found wild but now in cul- 

 tivation, which have such a striking appearance that they deserve 

 to be noted. I have called it forma ramosa. 



The pinnae are narrower than in the type, the segments being 

 shorter and very broadly decurrent, the cutting gradually de- 

 creasing in depth until some of the upper pinnae are simply 

 crenate. Nearly all the pinnae are forked at the tip, most are 

 again forked and a few cristate. The main rachis is divided for 

 about the upper fourth of the frond, the two divisions repeatedly 

 forked and the ultimate segments ending in from two to ten 

 points. I am informed by Mr. Chas. T. Druery that a cristate 

 form of radicans is known, but not a ramose one. 

 Seabrook, N. H. 



EW men in any age have led a busier life than Mr. Thomas 



Meehan, whose portrait appears elsewhere in this issue. 



Other interests have constantly obliged botany to take 

 second place with him, and yet in the latter province alone he 

 has won honors enough to satisfy half a dozen botanists. It is, 

 therefore, with much pleasure that a short sketch of his life is 

 presented. 



Mr. Meehan was born in London, March 21, 1826. His 

 father was head gardener for - n English gentleman and the son 

 came naturally by his love for plant studies. His leaning in 

 this direction was shown at the early age of 14, when he pub- 

 lished his first scientific paper on the sensitive nature of the 

 stamens of Portulacca. This and other botanical work secured 

 for him admission to Kew Gardens as a student. A few years 

 later he started for the New World, larding in New York on 

 his twenty-second birthday. Shortly after he was engaged as 

 gardener in the famous Bartram Gardens of Philadelphia and 

 afterward came to have entire charge of them. In 1853 he 

 started in the nursery business for himself. This he still con- 

 tinues near Philadelphia in conjunction with his sons. 



THOMAS MEEHAN. 



