﻿534 Underwood: The terxate Species of Botrychium 



7. Botrychium silaifolium Presl, ReL Haenk. 1: 76. 1830. 



* 



B. tcrnatiim, var. australe, D. C. Eaton, Ferns N. Am. I : pL 

 20a. 1879 (in part). Not B. australe R. Br. 

 Presl described this species as follows : 



"B. fronde radicali tripinnata, pinnis primariis secundariisque petiolalis, pinnulis 

 subsessilibus ovatis crenato-dentatis, inferioribus sublobatis, scapo nudo, panicula coarc- 

 tata. Hab. Nootka-Sund. 



"Frons radicalis solitaria ambitu cordato-ovata, tripinnata, petiolo tripollicari rha- 

 chibusque sulcato. Pinnae primariae 5P°Ui car es oppositae petiolatae patentes ovatae 

 obtusae. Pinnae secundariae sesquibipollicares suboppositae petiolatae oblongo-lanceo- 

 latae. Pinnulae alternae et suboppositae ovatae obtusae glaberrimae camulosae virides, 

 inferiores, 5-6 lineas longae subsessiles trilobae, mediae sessiles ovato-lanceolatae bilobae 

 et profunde dentatae, supremae crenato-dentatae. Scapus pedalis sulcatus, fronde aequi- 

 longus. Panicula secunda ramosa, ramis suboppositis ramosissimis, inferioribus ultra 3 

 pollices longis. 



"Capsulae luteae magnitudinae seminis Milii. Semina flavo-viridia. ,> 



Greville & Hooker in their Enumeratio Filicum * speak of 

 this as " a very distinct species as appears from the description," 

 and this early opinion appears to be the correct one. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Victor Schiffner of Prag, we 

 have been able to see the original type from Presl's herbarium and 

 it coincides exactly with the forms that are more or less common 

 in collections from California. Dr. M. A. Howe has collected 

 very fine specimens at Sisson, near Mt. Shasta, in well shaded 

 woods at an altitude of about 3,500 feet. Other plants are in col- 

 lections from farther south in the Sierras, and there is a specimen 

 at Berlin, collected in the Cascade Mountains, Oregon, by Howell. 

 Dr. Howe's specimens were collected 3 1 July and are very im- 

 mature, the old leaf of the preceding season persisting, the young 

 lamina unfolding and the sporangia well-formed but still partly 

 unfolded as is also the case with Presl's plant which is only a lit- 

 tle farther advanced. The species has been fairly well figured in 

 outline in Eaton's Ferns of North America as var. australe (Cali- 

 fornia form only) but how it could have been possible to confuse 



with 



Australia 



* Bot. Misc. 3 : 224. 1833 



