Still Another Christmas Fern.
In 1893, the late James A. Graves found a curious form of Christmas fern
(_Polystichum acrostichoides_) in the vicinity of Susquehanna, Pa., and
removed it to his garden where it continued to put forth its abnormal
fronds for many years and may still be alive for anything the writer
knows to the contrary. During the period in which Mr. Graves gave his
principal attention to the study of ferns he was often advised to
describe his abnormal specimen, but he was always so much engrossed in
the study and cultivation of the living ferns that he never found time
to write a formal scientific description of the plant, though he had
settled on a name for it. The form undoubtedly deserves a distinctive
name and since the discoverer is no longer with us, it seems very
fitting that the form be named for him. I therefore offer the following
description of
Polystichum acrostichoides f. Gravesii.
Plant similar to the type but with the pinnae ending in truncate tips
from which the midveins project as spinelike bristles. Type in the
herbarium of Willard N. Clute. Cotype in the herbarium of Alfred
Twining, Scranton, Pa.
Although the description is drawn from a single plant it is likely that
a search in the regions where the Christmas fern is abundant would
reveal other specimens with the same peculiarity. Indeed, H. G. Rugg in
a paper before the Vermont Botanical Club, last winter, described a
plant that, to judge from his remarks must be essentially the same
thing. He says: "For several years I have had a peculiar form of this
fern growing in my garden. It is interesting because of the truncate
form of the pinnae and the multifid form of the tip of the frond. The
sterile fronds are usually like those of the type plant. This fern I
transplanted into my garden several years ago and ever since then it has
continued to bear these peculiar fronds. The late Mr. B. D. Gilbert was
interested in the plant and asked permission to describe it in the _Fern
Bulletin_ but illness and finally death prevented." Apparently the only
difference between the Vermont and Pennsylvania plants is the cristate
apex, but as forking tips are to be expected in any species this feature
is not extraordinary.
Mr. Graves usually spoke of his specimen as the variety _truncatum_.
This is the name it bears in some herbaria and is the one it undoubtedly
would have borne in literature had he lived to describe it. Those who
were fortunate enough to have known Mr. Graves personally, however, will
be pleased to see his name associated with one of the forms of that
division of the plant world which he studied so long and so assiduously.
It need hardly be said for the readers of this magazine that Mr. Graves
was one of the founders of the Linnaean Fern Chapter the name by which
the American Fern Society was originally known, was elected the first
treasurer and held that office through half the lifetime of the society,
was one time president of the same society and for a long time one of
the most resourceful of its Advisory Council members.
[Illustration: Outline of frond]
The drawing herewith was made from the middle pinnae of a frond kindly
supplied by Mr. Alfred Twining, of Scranton, Pa. It is a fair average of
the form and though without much beauty of outline is still of interest
for the form in which nature has cast it.