﻿THE FERN BULLETIN 



89 



finds. The late L. M. Underwood was wont to call 

 all such work "puerile" but the opinion is now pretty 

 well current that the giving of a name to a form makes 

 it all the easier to handle, whether in literature, in ex- 

 changing or in exact description. 



In the form illustrated herewith, the expected has 

 again happened. The incised form has been found 

 several times and goes variously as serratum of Miller 

 or Hortonae of Davenport. A short time ago the 

 exact scientific name of the form was deemed of 

 enough importance to warrant a change and it now 

 occasionally appears in print as Aspl'enium platyneuron 

 incisum ( E. C. Howe). The forked form seems not 

 to have been figured or described though a forked 

 form without name was included in a list of ferns with 

 forked fronds published in this magazine a dozen years 

 ago. That we may in future know just what form is 

 meant we suggest that the form illustrated herewith 

 be known as Asplcnium ebeneum f. furcatum or if the 

 student is not very settled in his nomenclature he may 

 prefer to know it as A. platyneuron f. furcatum. The 

 specimen illustrated was sent to me from Asheville, 

 X. Car., through the kindness of the collector, Miss 

 Frances M. Wright. The plant was normal in all re- 

 spects with the exception of the fronds, five in number, 

 which were much branched at the apex. The frond 

 illustrated was heavily fruited but sterile fronds also 

 possessed the forking feature. — W. N. C. 



OSMUNDA CINNAMOMFA FORMA ANGUSTA 



BY D. LEWIS DUTTON. 



In the latter part of the summer of 1904, when 

 botanizing in a cedar swamp in Leicester, Vt, I found 

 a peculiar form of Osmunda cinnamomea. It presented 

 a withered or contracted condition and at first I thought 



