March, 1922] BENEDICT — NEW VARIETIES OF NEPHROLEPIS 
connection with the dwarfing and ruffling series, and will be considered 
in order. 
Reversions of the Primary Sports of Bostoniensis 
Before the reversions of the primary sports of bostoniensis are dealt 
with, it will be worth while to consider the possible reversion of bostoniensis 
itself. Bostoniensis differs from the wild species, exaltata, from which it 
must have originated, in certain vegetative characters — it has laxer, broader, 
more numerous leaves — and also in producing only abortive sporangia. 
The wild species is abundantly fertile, and the spores germinate readily. 
In bostoniensis, however, the sporangia abort at an early stage, apparently 
before the tetrad division. The resulting sporangia are small and shriveled, 
but there are usually enough of them to produce fruit dots of considerable 
size and the gross appearance of fertility. 
Of the actual reversion of bostoniensis to a fertile condition there is no 
authentic record. There have been many attempts on the part of florists 
to produce plants by planting the soral material and there have been a few 
reports of success, but the reports have told nothing of the condition of the 
plants from which the spores (?) were obtained, i.e., whether the original 
plant had first reverted in reproductive and vegetative characters as well, 
or whether the fertile spores were a chance production on a plant otherwise 
like ordinary bostoniensis. 
There is nothing inherently improbable in either of the above suggested 
contingencies. An approximation to vegetative reversion may frequently 
be seen in plants which have been grown in untoward conditions of light, 
temperature, and food. In these plants the leaves assume a stiffer, more 
erect habit, decidedly suggestive of the appearance of the wild species but 
without its condition of spore fertility. Favorable conditions cause a return 
to the normal bostoniensis characters. It may be noted, however, that 
real reversion might occur frequently in florists' establishments without 
being observed, because the difference in appearance between the sterile 
and the fertile sori is not calculated to attract the attention of the average 
grower, and also because a reverted plant would probably be discarded as 
undesirable. 
The primary progressive sports of bostoniensis, as listed in the revised 
chart, comprise four types: (i) Division sports, Piersoni and Anna Foster; 
(2) Dwarf sports, Scotti and Giatrasi; (3) Ruffled sports, Harrisi and Roose- 
velti; and (4) a "fish-tail" or forked-leaf form, Gretnai. The possible and 
actual reversions may be best considered under the same categories. 
Piersoni. The history of Piersoni is illuminating. I am indebted for 
the following facts to J. C. Trevillian, who has been in chaige of the fern 
houses at F. R. Pierson's Tarry town establishment since and before the 
origin of Piersoni, the first of a long line of Pierson varieties. 
The first break from the once pinnate form came as a small two-leaved 
