96 
European Ferns. 
Spain ; the second having pinnae rounded at the base, found in Sardinia, the Tyrol, and the 
Canaries. 
Besides these European forms, there is a Madeiran plant, which has been regarded as a 
distinct species under the name of A. anceps. It differs from the ordinary form of A. Trichomanes 
mainly in size, being a much more robust plant, with taller fronds and larger pinnae. A plant 
which Mr. H. C. Watson considers “inseparable from the A splenium anceps of Madeira and other 
Atlantic islands ” has been collected in the south-west part of Surrey. On a specimen of this, 
in the Herbarium of the British Museum, Mr. Watson notes: “This may fairly be called anceps , 
but it is quite traceable into the more usual form in south-west Surrey.” 
Since the greater part of this account was written, Prof. Asa Gray, the well-known 
American botanist, has published the following brief account of what he describes as “ a 
phenomenon which, I suppose, has never before been noticed,” to which his attention had 
been directed by Mr. E. J. Loomis, of Washington, and which he commends to the attention 
of botanists: — “A tuft of Asplenium Trichomanes gathered last autumn in the mountains of 
Virginia is growing in his house in a glass dish. About two months ago he noticed that one 
of the fronds — a rather short and erect one, which is now showing fructification — made quick 
movements alternately back and forth in the plane of the frond, through from twenty degrees 
to forty degrees, whenever the vessel was brought from its shaded situation into sunlight or 
bright daylight. The movement was extensive and rapid when the frond was younger. 
When I saw it on the twenty-third of January its compass was within fifteen degrees, and 
was about as rapid as that of the leaflets of Desmodium gyrans. It was more rapid than the 
second-hand of a watch, but with occasional stops in the course of each half vibration. This 
was in full daylight, next a window, but not in sunshine. No movement had been observed 
in the other fronds, which were all sterile and reclining, with the exception of a single one 
which was just unfolding, in which Mr. Loomis thinks he has detected incipient motion of the 
same kind.” This opens up a new field for botanical observers, and it will be interesting to 
learn whether similar automatic movements have been observed in any other fern ; so far as 
wc arc aware, nothing of the kind has been previously recorded. 
