26 Notes oil Botcvmj — Hvssey. 



have followed, is the Lpperditiadce, all the genera of which are fossil. 

 Entomis Beyrichia Priviitia and Leperditia are found on the Silurian 

 rock.s. Beyrichia, indeed, is not very uncommon in the rocks of the 

 "Cincinnati uplift." Kirkby a is found in the carboniferous period. 

 The Trilobites of our Silurian rocks are regarded as an extinct family 

 of Phillopada. Like many of the above mentioned genera they were 

 salt water species. Various new species of Apiis, Streptocephalns lAm- 

 nadla, Limneti, and Edherid are described by Dr. Packard in Silliman's 

 Journal for 1871, p. 109, and in the Am. Mag. Nat. His., series 4, 

 vol. 8. 



Notes on Botany ; by Prof. John Hussey, Ph. D. 

 Trichomanes radicans. — This fern is now fairly entitled to a 

 place in the flora of the northern United States. The discovery is due 

 to the observing habits of Dr. H. H. Hill, of Cincinnati, who, in com- 

 pany with the late Dr. McConnell, visited the caves in Carter county, 

 Kentucky, during the summer of 1871. Daring an exploration in the 

 vicinity of the caves, Dr. Hill, on the lookout for objects of natural 

 history, made the discovery of this fern. Not knowing the name of 

 the plant, he distributed some specimens at Cincinnati. Some fronds 

 were sent to correspondents, some of whom, supposing they were the 

 subjects of a. trick, and that the specimens came from a Cincinnati 

 hothouse, did not deign to return a civil answer. It seemed incredible 

 that the Trichomanes radicaiis should be obtained in Northeastern Ken- 

 tucky. During the winter of 1872-3, Dr. Hill gave me specimens 

 which I decided to be Trichomanes radicans. I then determined to 

 visit the locality, and, accordingly, in the month of August, 1873, 

 embraced Carter county, Kentucky, in an extensive collecting tour 

 wdiich I was making. The caves are in limestone, which is cut and 

 exjiosed by deep drainage valleys, but the caps of the cliffs are com- 

 posed of sandstone. Had I not secured the services of a guide, who 

 had been with Dr. Hill, it is not at all probable that I should ever have 

 found the few square feet on which the plant is growing. On the 

 under side of the overhanging sand-rock, perhaps twenty feet from the 

 exposed face, which looks to the east, where the upper and lower beds 

 are so near together that one must literally crawl to reach some por- 

 tions of the mass of fern, I found a space of about one rod in length 

 by two or three yards in width, covered with a completely interlaced 

 web of the radiating stems of the 2:>lant I was seeking. The pendent 

 fronds were green and fresh, although the face of the sand-rock was 

 scarcely moist, this being the dry season. The disconnected sandstone 

 ridge, cut up into a labyriathine maze by the drainage, depends solely 



