106 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Sept. 



thousands) of plants. In many places the ferns were young and 

 still developing their sporangia, but about the middle of October 

 a light touch of frost checked further activity. 



This spring I found plants sprouting early in May; by the 

 20th of June I had found plenty of Adder's Tongue in every 

 station discovered last autumn and had added several new 

 colonies and stations to the list. The plant is, I believe, quite 

 common and almost ubiquitous in country clear of forest where 

 old pastures abound. A fortnight ago I was driven some 10 miles 

 to a trout stream rather beyond the pedestrian's range. As I 

 sauntered up stream I noticed an open hill -side through a clearing 

 in the woods; it looked a likely place and was only a few rods 

 distant; in 10 minutes I had found 30 or 40 plants, about turf- 

 mounds on its slopes. 



I almost think myself competent noAV to find the Adder's 

 Tongue, for anybody who wishes, in any locality whatever, 

 provided it has the right conditions, with as much certainty at 

 least as vour water-finder will discover hidden springs with his 

 forked hazel wand; perhaps with the same overweening self- 

 confidence, and (it may be) the same inability ,to communicate 

 my gift. 



NOTES ON EUXOA DETERSA WLK. AND 

 E. PERSONATA MORR. 



By John B. Smith, Sc.D. 



In 1856, Walker described as deter sa an American species 

 which he referred with a query to Char'jeas. It came from Nova 

 Scotia and was not identified in our collections until, after an 

 examination of the type, I referred it, in my catalogue of 1893, 

 to the Agrotis pitychrous Grote, described in 1873, in the Bull. 

 BufT. Soc. Nat. Sci. 1, 82. This reference has been questioned 

 by Mr. Schaus, I believe; but not very definitely, and it has been 

 followed since then by Hampson in his monographic work. My 

 note was that Walker's type was like an average pitychrous, such 

 as was also represented in the Grote collection under the latter 

 name; but Hampson's figure does not represent such a specimen; 

 it is really more like a personata. 



In 1876, Mr. Morrison described Agrotis personata from a 

 single example, in the Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. XVIII, 238, 

 recognizing its resemblance to pitychrous and really differentiat- 

 ing it rather by locality than by any very decided characters. In 



