﻿540 Underwood : The ternate Species of Botrychium 



South America : Two species undescribed from Colombia and 



Argentina. 



Besides the above, there are two forms from Mexico, one from 

 Alaska, one from Guatemala and one from Jamaica, too little 

 known at present for accurate description and limitation. 



Possibly a brief account of the materials which have been ex- 

 amined may be of interest as it will apply as well to other genera 

 of ferns, which have been studied already. The Kew herbarium 

 has by far the richest series in the world, based on Hooker's original 

 collection and supplemented by extensive collections in British col- 

 onies and many others variously obtained, among them the finest 

 series of duplicates from Fee's rich gatherings that we have seen. 

 In this group of Botrychium there are at Kew 138 specimens. 



The Berlin collection stands next in value in Europe, repre- 

 senting in addition to types of Willdenow, Sturm, and Kunze, the 

 extensive collection of Mettenius, and Hildebrand's Hawaiian Island 

 herbarium. It also contains the results of the work of Kuhn and 

 Prantl, the untimely death of each of whom has deprived Germany 

 - of a master in pteridology. In this group we found 108 specimens 

 at Berlin, there being an unusually large series of B. matricariae. 

 The Paris collection is small and poor, though much valuable 

 material (including Fournier's types) is unmounted and stored in 

 the attics of the old fire trap in which it is housed. It is a note- 

 worthy fact that the best collections from the French colonies and 

 the specimens of the French pteridologist, Fee, are best represented 

 not at Paris, but at Kew and Berlin ; we found only 34 specimens 

 of this group at Paris. 



The American public collections are better known on this side 

 of the water and contain naturally a vastly better representation of 

 the plants of the United States (thoue-h not of 



West 



Mexico 



Indies), than do those of Europe. The Gray Herbarium fur- 

 nished opportunity to study 64 specimens of this group the Na- 

 tional Herbarium 40, the Herb. Philadelphia Academy of Sciences 

 16, and the Columbia Herbarium 50, at least two thirds of which 

 are specimens from the United States. The Canby Herbarium in 

 the College of Pharmacy, New York, the herbarium of Lafayette 



urn 



