52 THE PLANT WORLD. 



The last number of the Torrey Bulletin contains a valuable re- 

 vision of the ternate species of Botrychium or Grape P'erns, by Pro- 

 fessor L. M. Underwood. He recognizes thus far fifteen species 

 throughout the world, of which number eight are found in North 

 America. The original or true Bot7'vchiuin ternatuin is not a native 

 of North America, being confined to Japan, China and India. Our 

 species are as follows: B. inatricariiE, found in the northern United 

 vStates and Canada; B. hiternatum, the species recently described by 

 Professor Underwood, from South Carolina to Alabama and Louisiana; 

 B. dissectum, the well-known form with finely dissected segments, 

 found in the Eastern States; B. obliquiun, the form having the sterile 

 segments oblong or lanceolate and obtuse or oblique at base, which 

 extends from Canada to Mexico; B. silaifolhim^ a Pacific coast species; 

 B. Coultcri, a stout, short-stemmed, fleshy species described as new, 

 from the geyser formations of the Yellowstone National Park ; B. occi- 

 dcntalc, another new species from British Columbia, being a tall, 

 fleshy plant of open woods. The remaining species, B. decomposituin^ 

 is Mexican. 



A BOTANICAL EXPEDITION TO PORTO RICO. 



Through the liberality of Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the first 

 president of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, there will be party organized to explore the flora of Porto 

 Rico. Mr. A. A. Heller and wife, who already have had wide experi- 

 ence in collecting in the various states and territories as well as in 

 Hawaii, will start about the first of December, prepared to collect 

 specimens of plants for the Herbarium, roots and seeds for the Gar- 

 dens, and miscellaneous specimens for the Economic Museum. The 

 flora of several of the larger islands of the Antilles is poorly or very 

 imperfectly known. That of Porto Rico has been but little studied 

 and only a very elementary botany in Spanish has ever been pub- 

 lished. The New York Botanical Gardens and Museum have begun 

 their career on a highly scientific standard, and, like the American 

 Museum of Natural History, will do much to further research and 

 exploration. This expedition is the second one to go under its 

 auspices, the first having been conducted by Mr. P. A. Rydberg, in 

 Montana, under the patronage of Mr. William E. Dodge, one of the 

 Garden managers. Mr. Rydberg made a very fine collection in the 

 high mountains of Montana and discovered the smallest alpine willow 

 ever seen, which will be described and figured in his enumeration of 

 the collections. 



