1905] The Fern Allies 267 
DRABA BOREALIS IN EASTERN AMERICA. — In the discussion of 
the plants which in eastern America have passed as Draba incana 
Mr. Knowlton and I referred! briefly to a species of the Behring Sea 
region, D. borealís DC., which has been known only from northwest- 
ern America and adjacent Asia. While exploring the bleak exposed 
shores of Cap Enragé, outside the harbor of Bic on the lower St. 
Lawrence, Mr. J. F. Collins and 1 were greatly pleased, therefore, to 
find in July last very characteristic specimens of this Alaskan species. 
The plants, large and finely developed, were growing in the shade of 
boulders at the base of the precipitous sea-wall, but they had been 
so freely nibbled by the nesting gulls that it was impossible to secure 
much perfect material. Such plants as were collected are beautifully 
matched by specimens from Unalaska, Behring Island, and shores 
of the Ochotsk Sea. 
Draba borealis is very quickly distinguished from the local D. 
megasperma, to which it is nearest related, by its larger more numer- 
ous leaves, very loose elongate pubescence, and by the longer-pedi- 
celled siliques which are oblong-lanceolate, strongly twisted, and, 
including the prominent styles (1 mm. or more long), in maturity 
becoming 1.5 to 1.8 cm. long. — M. L. FERNALD, Gray Herbarium. 
THE FERN ArLiES.?— Mr. Clute's recently issued work on the 
fern allies is similar in character to his “Our Ferns in their Haunts.” 
By devoting a whole volume to a restricted group of plants the 
author has been able to give considerable space to each species and 
thus state at length and in popular language facts concerning the 
habits and habitats, which have ordinarily been compressed into a 
few terse and technical expressions. It is well known that species 
and varieties in the fern allies are somewhat vague in their natural 
limitation and consequently subject to widely different interpretation. 
The author has wisely refrained from excessive splitting and has 
evidently endeavored to make his nomenclature conservative. He 
has not, however, been able to refrain from framing a few new and, 
at least in some cases, quite needless combinations, as for instance 
1 RHODORA, vii. 65. 4 
` 2? The Fern Allies of North America North of Mexico by Willard Nelson Clute, 
with illustrations by Ida Martin Clute; 8vo, xiv, and 278 pp.; F. A. Stokes Co., 
New York. 
