THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



85 



short fleshy roots from which new plants are sometimes pro- 

 duced, and there is a freakishness about it that makes it inter- 

 esting in spite of its lack of beauty. 



It seems to have no special preferences as to habitat though 

 the fact of its rarity might suggest that it would be very decided 

 in its likings. The tallest specimens are perhaps found in 

 sphagnum bogs but it grows with equal cheerfulness, if not 

 with equal vigor, in the grass of old pastures and on hillocks 

 of hemlock loam. One of its peculiarities is the lazy trick it 

 seems to have of resting for a whole season and then going 

 placidly on its way as if nothing unusual had occurred. I say 

 ''seems to have" because not very much is definitely known 

 about it, but in one case, at least, the fact is beyond dispute. 



Several years ago, I found a number of the plants grow- 

 ing on a barren hilltop where even moss had a hard struggle 

 for existence. I dug two or three plants and carried them to 

 my garden where they lived in apparent content the remainder 

 of the season. The next year they failed to appear, but fortu- 

 nately the spot was not disturbed and the succeeding summer 

 they came up, hale and hearty, though they did not produce any 

 fertile spikes. Since then, they have grown and fruited regu- 

 larly and are larger than they were in their original home, 

 though they are still rather small. 



While there are about twenty species of Ophioglossum 

 known, there is but one, or possibly two, found in Northeastern 

 America — a fact which no one but the scientific botanist will 

 greatly regret. 



