THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



109 



minded of the aphorism that "the man who needs a degree 

 never ought to have one." In the recent distribution of these 

 honors, it is interesting to note that the botanists were out in 

 full force and carried away 34 degrees, being only surpassed 

 in this respect by the chemists. There should now be 275 

 botanical Doctors in the country — at least that number of de- 

 grees has been conferred on botanists in the time covered by 

 the records. 



Rattlesnake Fern With Tw^o Fronds. — In confirma- 

 tion of what was said in a recent number of this magazine re- 

 garding the form called Botrycliiuui dichronuin, Miss Adella 

 Prescott writes: ''Two years ago, I found in this vicinity [Cen- 

 tral New York] a specimen of Botrychinui Virginianum hav- 

 ing two sterile fronds. I found it late in the season ( Septem- 

 ber or October) and there is no sign of a fertile frond on either 

 of the sterile ones. One of the fronds was yellow and faded, 

 evidently an old frond though still perfect in shape, while the 

 other was fresh and green." It may be added in this connec- 

 tion that the Botrychiums are a very provident lot of plants. 

 They usually plan for several seasons in advance and careful 

 dissection wnll often show the buds in successively smaller 

 sizes, for five seasons to come, enclosed in the base of the stipe. 

 That more than one bud may develop on occasion there seems 

 to be no reason to doubt. The dichrojunn form, however, 

 grows in warmer regions and its two fronds are due to another 

 cause. One frond is the frond from a previous season which 

 the milder climate has permitted to remain until the frond of 

 the succeeding season is spread. 



Flour From Flowers. — Although the title of this para- 

 graph would seem to indicate that certain flowers may provide 

 the basis for bread-making, it was not our intention to give 

 this impression, though it is said that the pollen of the stami- 

 nate cat-tail flowers is sometimes used for bread-making in 

 India. At present we are interested in pointing out the fact 



