4 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb., 



(fee. Nineteen Orchids are enumerated, yet only two Carices, two- 

 grasses, and no Cryptogamia, so that there is still room for useful 

 work at Anticosti and Mingan. The Kalmia latifolia of Mr.- 

 Billings's Anticosti list is no doubt K. Angusti/oUa, as Mr. Yerrill 

 suggests. 



8. WOODSIA ALPINA (W. HYPERBOREA), A CANADIAN PlANT. 



— I am happy to be able to state definitely that this very rare 

 fern is a native of Canada. Last winter several specimens oC 

 Woodsia were brought to me by my former pupil, Mr. Robt. Bell,, 

 B. A., who had gathered them in Gaspe in the previous year. 

 One of these could not be satisfactorily identified; and through Prof.. 

 Torrey, I forwarded it to Mr. Daniel C. Eaton, who has made the 

 American ferns a special study. He kindly took the trouble to com- 

 pare it with authentic specimens in his rich herbarium of ferns,. 

 and with published figures and descriptions that were inaccessible 

 at Kingrston. He writes to me that he has now no doubt of the iden- 

 tity of the Gaspe fern with Woodsia hyperhorea {W. alpina, S. Fo 

 Gr.). He adds : "itis the first American specimen I have seen." Thus 

 Pursh's record of the fern as occurring "in clefts of rocks, Canada," 

 is confirmed. Mr. Eaton further points out that Major Raines's 

 Oregon specimens referred to W. hyperhorea by Sir William 

 Hooker, in his recent work on British ferns, do not really belong 

 to that species; "they have not jointed stripes, nor a cilliate-cleft 

 involucre, and belong to the Physematimn section. I may state that" 

 my own specimens of W. alpina, from Norway, (Thos. Ander- 

 son, M.D.,) and Ben Lawers, Perthshire, (J. T. Syme, F.L.S.,) are 

 very small fertile fronds, remarkably different in aspect from the 

 comparatively large lax fronds from Gasp^ (measuring nine inches 

 in length). I therefore propose that the Gaspe plant should be 

 distinguished as var. Belli^ as I had described it in the " Synopsis 

 of Canadian Ferns and Filicoid Plants" ; but it must now be re- 

 ferred to W. alpina, not to W. glabella, as formerly. Although 

 the latter species ( W. glabella') is admitted by all authors as a 

 Canadian fern, I know of no strictly Canadian habitat for it. 

 Mr. Charles H. H chcock tells me that he collected W. glabella 

 sometime ago at Willoughby Mountain, Vermont, where it has 

 become extremely scarce. 



9. The Compass Plant or Polar Plant. — It is a misfor- 

 tune of botany that more time is required to clear up doubts 

 and point out errors than for the pleasanter task of making^. 



