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1896] BRIEFER ARTICLES 407 
THE HABITATS OF THE RARER FERNS OF ALABAMA, 
(WITH PLATE XX!) 
INTEREST naturally attaches to any species of plants that grow near 
the borders of their geographic range. For this reason Alabama pre- 
sents special interest to the student of ferns, because it is the southern 
limit of quite a number of ferns of the northern states, and also the 
northern limit of a few of the stragglers that come up from the 
south. The range of elevation, from the extreme lowlands of the 
Gulf region to the spurs of the Appalachian system that penetrate the 
state even beyond its center, is sufficient to give us a somewhat varied 
fern flora. Some forty species occur in the state exclusive of five 
species of Ophioglossacez. 
The early exploration of the state was conducted by Judge Thomas 
M. Peters, and in later years Professor Eugene A. Smith and more 
especially Dr. Charles Mohr have the higher flora well in hand. I 
have been able to add to their list only a single species from the 
Vicinity of Auburn, in the handsome swamp fern, Dryopteris Floridana, 
hitherto known only from Florida, where it is not uncommon. I 
am able also to reinstate a very distinct species of Botrychium which 
for many years has been masquerading under a false name. I give 
the characters and synonymy as follows: 
BoTRYCHIUM BITERNATUM (Lam.). 
Osmunda biternata Lam. Encyc. Meth. Botanique 4:650. 1797. 
Botry pus lunariovides Michx. Flora 2 :274. 1803, 
Botrychium lunarioides Swz. Syn. Fil. 172. 1806 (not Gray: Manual, etc.). 
Botrychium ternatum var. lunarioides D. C. Eaton, Ferns of N. Am. 1: 148. 
20, f, 2. 1879, 
; Sporophyte with fleshy roots from which rises a short common 
Stalk 1.5 or less high, bearing a nearly sessile broadly triangular 
‘ernately compound leaf 8 to 10% wide, 5™ long; middle division 
slightly larger than the lateral ones and like them nearly bipinnate ; 
ultimate divisions somewhat lunate, usually not exceeding 5 to 6m in 
Width, the outer margin crenulate, the lateral margins decurrent into 
the short branches of the rachis: sporophyll on a rather stout slightly 
clongate stalk (8™ or more long), bipinnate, with a rather broad 
Tachis ; Spores pale alutaceous, 39 to 44m in diameter: bud for the 
