136 NATURK STUDY. 
With reference to the situation of the bud the first six 
species are alike. In them it is wholly enclosed in the base 
of the stalk. In No. 7 it is enclosed in a cavity at one side 
of the base of the stalk. 
With reference to the vernation there is greater variety. 
In simplex, the fertile and sterile portions of the young leaf 
are both straight. From this simplest arrangement there is 
a continuously increasing tendency of the parts of the leaf 
to bend downward. In Nos. 2, 3,4 and 5, the apex is more 
or less turned down, while in Nos. 6 and 7, the whole seg¬ 
ment is turned down, or, in technical language, the “ver¬ 
nation is wholly inclined. ’ ’ The most interesting point here 
brought out is that both the change in the situation of the 
bud and the maximum of inclination in its parts occur in 
that species which has undergone the greatest amount of 
specialization, which has attained the highest vegetative 
capacity, and which approaches nearest to the type of the 
true ferns, and very nearly indeed to the genus Osmunda, 
the connecting link. [See Vol. I. No.5, p. 65, and No. 6, 
p. 90.] 
Will not those who read this article try during the com¬ 
ing season to make observations of this interesting class of 
plants? The very elusiveness of them enhances the charm 
of the search. Who finds a new station of Ophioglossum 
gets a feather in his cap! I know a bit of meadow at the 
foot of a wooded hill where it grows in abundance. The 
plants are taller and slenderer than those which are found 
in hillside pastures. The long, thread-like roots scarcely 
strike into the soil, but twine themselves about the roots of 
the slender sedges and may be extricated easily from the 
soft, pillow-like hummocks. 
Then there will be the delightful possibility of finding 
botrychiums not hitherto credited to this region. There 
will be the probability of finding the rarer species, to say 
nothing of new or rare varieties of familiar species. Above 
