Vol. XIX, pp. 23-24 February 26, 1906 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW BOTP.YCHIUM FROM ALABAMA. 

 BY WILLIAM R. MAXON. 



By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Through the courtesy of Mr. W. C. Dukes of INfolnle, Alabama, 

 the U. 8. National Herbarium has received within the last year 

 an excellent scries of an unusually interesting Botrychium, from 

 the vicinity of Mobile, which is apparently undescribcd. The 

 writer's views as to the propriety of recognizing the various 

 well-marked component forms of the ternatum^voup as full spe- 

 cies, in those instances in which intermediates are not known, 

 were expressed at some length* less than a year ago and need 

 not be repeated. The present form, whose relationship will be 

 discussed below, may appropriately be known as 



Botrychium Alabamense sp. nov. 



A slender delicate plant of tlie icrnatum group, 20-30 cm. higli, brandl- 

 ing at or above the surface of the ground. Stem 2-3.5 cm. long, 2-3 mm. in 

 diameter, pale or salmon-colored, clothed below with a fibrous slieatli and 

 emitting numerous stout spreading roots. Sterile division bright green, 

 short- or frequently long-petiolate (average 2.5 cm.), about 12 cm. broad 

 by 11 cm. long, fully tripinnate, or quadripinnatifid as to the basal portion 

 of the lowermost lateral divisions, variable in outline but commonly sul)- 

 pentagonal, the lateral divisions usually alternate; ultimate segments (in 

 normal mature plants) approximate, or somewhat distant, alternate, ob- 

 lique, broadly obovate, 5-10 mm. broad, subequally and strongly cuneate to 

 a narrow adnate base, rarely with a shallow lateral lobe ; margins unequally 

 and conspicuously tiuibriate, particularly in the larger specimens ; texture 

 thin, flaccid, the veins readily perceptible. Sporophyll averaging 22 cm. 

 in length, slender, often arcuate or even flexuose, uniformly of a decided 

 salmon color (excepting the apical third) as are also the main vascular 

 parts of the sterile division ; panicle 7-10 cm. long, bipinnate or rarely tri- 

 pinnate, basal branch averaging 3.5 cm. in length. 



Known to the writer only from the vicinity of Mobile, Alabama, and 

 chiefly through a fine series collected by Mr. Dukes at Spring Hill, at an 



* A New Botrychium from Jamaica.— Bull. Torrey Club 32 : 219-222. 1905. 

 5— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XIX, 1906. (23) 



