﻿532 Underwood : The ternate Species of Botrychium 



In mossy meadows in New England and Central New York, 

 where exposed to the direct rays of the sun, the plant takes on a 

 more contracted habit, the segments are much shortened and the ' 

 plant approaches somewhat the form of segment seen in B. obli- 

 quum which often grows with it. But even under these circum- 

 stances the plants are unmistakable, and while they approach more 

 nearly than at any other point, they do not blend one with the 

 other, while in their normal development they are widely separated. 

 In the New England plant growing in the above situations the 

 petiole of the sterile lamina is much reduced and the lamina itself 

 is usually much smaller than in fully developed forms of the 

 species. 



5. Botrychium australe R. Br. Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 1: 164. 



1810. 



Of the two species described during the year 18 10, this appears 

 to be the first that was made known and was described as follows : 



<< B. australe, scapo subradicali, fronde ternata, foliolis bipinnatis, pinnulis con- 

 fluentibus incisis. (J. D.)v. v. Port Jackson, Van Dieman's Land." 



This brief description is utterly unsatisfactory, and, were it not for 

 Robert Brown's plant at the Kew Herbarium together with several 

 other plants from the type locality or from other portions of the 

 Australian region, we might very easily unite this species with almost 

 any of the others. With Brown's plant in existence it is hard to 

 understand some of the later comments on the species. Greville 

 and Hooker, in their Enumeratio Filicum,* say: "This comes 

 very near to the preceding [B. Vtrgimcuni\ in the size, habit and 

 other characters." J. D. Hooker in i86 7 f refers this species to 

 B cicutarmm Swz., a species as large as B Virginianum which 

 Plumier figured from San Domingo, but which so far as we know 

 has not been rediscovered. D. C. Eaton likewise makes this the 

 nominal bas,s of the var. australe of his composite species which 

 includes the very large Californian plant which we shall refer to 

 below under B. silaifolmm Presl. 



The plants of this^pecies are comparatively small, the sterile 



*Bot. Miscellany, 3 : 223. 1833 



t Handbook New Zeal. Fl. 3 8 7 . l8 6 7 . f/ also R ^^ % % ^ 



