48 UNDERWOOD: INDEX TO THE 
slender from a very short axis: common stalk slender, rather 
weak and spreading, 8-12 cm. long: lamina short-stalked (about 
I cm.), 2-4 cm. long, I-1.5 cm. wide, composed of 7-9 broadly 
cuneate segments which are spaced their own width: or more, with 
one or more notches in the outer margin, or occasionally quite 
deeply incised: sporophyll 1.5-2.5 cm. long, mostly bipinnate, 
with a slender stalk 2.5-4 cm. long. 
Rocky ground in shade. The following specimens have been 
examined : ‘‘ Geddes Farm,” Syracuse, 1879, /. S. Gifford, C D*; 
Syracuse, 1873, &. W. Mundy, G; Jamesville Road, 1878, Mary 
Olivia Rust, UC D KE; near Split Rock, Syracuse, Underwood 
(type), U. All the stations are within five miles from Syracuse in 
Onondaga county, New York, where the writer first commenced 
the study of ferns in 1875, and to the memory of which as one of 
the most prolific fern localities in the country this species is dedi- 
cated. Similar plants have been collected in Michigan near Cop- 
per Harbor, Keweenaw Point, O. A. Farwell, U ; and in Montana, 
Box Elder Creek, 23 July 1886, R. S. Wilhams, FE. 
This interesting species was originally discovered by the ladies 
of the Syracuse Botanical Club in June 1872; there appears to 
have been some difference of opinion as to whom the original dis- 
covery belongs as it was claimed by both Mrs. S. M. Rust and Miss 
Jane Hosmer. Mr. Davenport was the first to determine the 
plant and naturally confused it with the more robust B. Lunaria 
and as early as 1877 published an account of it under that name. 
That it may be a descendant of the stock from which B. Lunaria 
sprang, is possible, but it also has very striking relations with B. 
tenebrosum. Having collected this rare species in one of its cen- 
tral New York stations and being familiar with the European B. 
Lunaria not only in the herbarium but from considerable field 
study, we have long regarded this a distinct species, and have 
waited in vain for additional information before publication. We 
have carefully gone over the extensive suites of specimens of 2. 
Lunaria in the large herbaria at Kew, Berlin, and Paris and find 
nothing to match this slender plant from central New York. The. 
* [As noted in previous papers by Professor Underwood, published in the BULLE- 
TIN, these letters refer to the herbaria in which the specimens noted have been seen: 
B — Berlin; C— Columbia (and the N. Y. Botanical Garden) ; D— Davenport; E 
=D. C. Eaton; G=Gray; K= Kew; and U = Underwood.—Ep. } 
