﻿528 Underwood : The ternate Species of Botrychium 



ferable to any defined variety or species is not yet accurately made 

 out. Most of these forms are confined to the Northern States 

 and more particularly to New York and New England. These 

 are various in size and this variation is doubtless due in part at 

 least to age, but until we can cultivate the various forms and 

 watch their development for a succession of years we shall prob- 

 ably have no very clearly marked data on which to base conclu- 

 sions in regard to specific relationships. Botanical collectors to 

 whom these northern forms are accessible can render an excellent 

 service by watching the development of young plants through a 

 succession of years, and that of different individuals under various 

 environments. 



3. Botrychium biternatum (Lam.) Underw. Bot Gaz. 22 : 407. 



1896. 



The third fern of the " ternata " group to be described was the 

 above species, which has also been singularly unfortunate in having 

 too many names. After its original name of Osmimda bitcrnata 

 given it by Lamarck in 1 797, it was next independently described in 

 the genus Botrypus of Richard* as Botrypus lunarioides, which led 

 Swartz a little later to transfer it to his earlier genus as B. lunarioides. 

 Then Willdenowf described it anew as B. fumarioides, quoting both 

 the prior names and citations, and SprengelJ seventeen years later, 

 apparently dissatisfied with the work of his predecessors, after quot- 

 ing all three of the preceding names, proceeds to baptize it anew as 

 B. fumariae Sprengel ! Surely the age of irruption in nomencla- 

 ture is a thing of the past instead of the present. In thirty years 

 this plant had three generic and four specific names and with the 

 exception of Richard each successive author quoted all the names 

 given by his predecessors ! 



The reasons for maintaining this species as distinct we have 

 already given in the Botanical Gazette, § and after having seen the 

 type specimens at Paris and various supplementary specimens in 

 numerous h erbar ia we are mo re than ever convinced that this 



* Michx. FI. Bor. Am. 2 : 274. 1803. 



fSp. PI. 5: 63. 1S10. 



JSyst. Veg. 4: 23. 1827. 



?Bot. Gaz. 22 : 407. 1896 ; 23 : 464. 1897. 



