﻿Underwood : The ternate Species of Botrychium 525 



which it was first applied. It would seem that this is the only- 

 legitimate method to follow. In this particular case it would re- 

 sult in holding the name Osmnnda for 0. regalis and its allies to 

 which it was applied by Tournefourt and others long before the 

 compiler, Linnaeus, adopted it for the conglomerate group of plants 

 which he called Osmnnda. For the genera established after Lin- 

 naeus it would seem to be more rational to adopt as the type of 

 the genus the first species mentioned under the genus as originally 

 defined. This, however, raises the question as to what disposition 

 shall be made of those early genera, which were not based on any 

 species but were defined by a brief statement of characters ; but it 

 will surely have the effect to pin the regularly established genera 

 down to some definite species so that whatever changes are made, 



i 



the generic names will have a definite abiding place. We propose 

 to apply this method to the genera of ferns in the discussions to be 

 given in this series of papers on the American species. 



For the present we will consider in historical sequence the vari- 

 ous species of Botrychium of the " ternata" group that have been 

 proposed by authors early and recent, and endeavor to supple- 

 ment, for the American species particularly, the outline of specific 

 limitations so clearly but briefly presented by the only modern in- 

 vestigator who has made an extended study of the group.* This 

 study is based on an examination of the collections at Kew, Ber- 

 lin and Paris, in addition to all the collections of importance, public 

 and private, that are found in the United States, supplemented by 

 a somewhat extended field examination of the genus as it occurs 

 throughout the eastern half of the American continent. While our 

 knowledge of the various species is by no means complete, the 

 conclusions here reached are based on the widest possible array of 

 attainable data. 



i. Botrychium ternatum (Thunb.) Swz. 



The original member of the so-called "ternata" group of 

 Botrychium was described and figured by Thunberg in his Flora 

 Japonica in 1784. The description reads as follows : 



*Prantl, Jahrb. des k6n. bot. Gartens Berlin, 3 : 1884. It is unfortunate that 

 Prantl and other continental monographers could not have had access to a wider array 

 ot materials. The Germans have largely neglected to visit Kew and the English 

 pteridologists have just as thoroughly neglected Paris and Berlin. 



