1910] The Ottawa Naturalist. 99 



(B. Lunaria). As exact figures are never out of place, I shall 

 describe a mature specimen as it lies before me at this moment. 

 Height 9 inches; common stem 4^ inches, covered for 1 inch with 

 brown sheaths of previous year's growth; fertile frond 4^ inches 

 consisting of a stem {2\ inches) and a bipinnate fruiting spike 

 (2\ inches); sterile frond 3 J inches long, consisting of a stem 

 (11 inches) and a leaf (2 inches) narrow-oblong in outline with 

 9 cuneate, simple, entire lobes; the first pair alternate at a little 

 distance from one another; nearly half an inch higher the second 

 pair contiguous-alternate, the third pair a quarter of an inch 

 higher overlapping-alternate, the fourth pair opposite, and at the 

 apex of the frond a single lobe strongly notched. 



The normal form of B. simplex is said to grow on dry hill 

 sides and to be very rare. Is it not possible that botanists have 

 been begging the question in deciding that the form found in 

 dry exposed stations was the normal form and that the fern was 

 therefore very rare? In that little cedar wood of some 30 or 40 

 yards square there is hardly any vegetation apart from Botrychium 

 simplex; I have counted half a hundred plants in the shade of 

 a single cedar; it would be a modest estimate to say there were 

 1,000 plants in the colony. It is surely possible that rich veget- 

 able mould in cedar swamps is the natural habitat of B. simplex 

 and that the dwarfed rigid form on dry hill sides is only a variety. 

 Of course, B. simplex is closely akin to B. Lunaria, which also is 

 rare and has its home in exposed situations, so that the form I 

 have may be a variety ; it is of exactly the appearance and habit 

 vou would expect in a plant subjected to somewhat abnormal 

 conditions: it is lank, ilaccid and pale, like a plant grow'n in a 

 cellar; but on the other hand its abundant fruiting proves it 

 healthy. 



For four years this damp cedar wood remained my only 

 station for B. simplex (if I have rightly determined the species) ; 

 but in September last at the close of my season's botany I got a 

 great surprise while staying in North Burgess at a mica mine 

 near Otty Lake (between Perth and the Rideau). The owner of 

 the mine, an old pupil, was taking me to see a "mud lake" on 

 his property; on our way through cedar alleys growing on an 

 elevated rocky plateau a few feet above marsh level we found a 

 colonv of B. ramosum; they had shed their spores, but were still 

 rect. living and green; all about the more open turfy parts of 

 this plateau were plants of B. obliquum, some of them enormous, 

 others very small and delicate, but all fruiting freely ; the Virginia 

 Rattlesnake was also, as usual, abundant. 



From there we dropped to swamp level and came out at 

 the upper end of the mud lake; it was unusually treacherous, 



