4 
1897 | BRIEFER ARTICLES 283 
collection, and in those in the Davenport Herbarium (Mass. Hort. Soc.), 
the bud is pilose, and this was true also of the duplicates which I dis- 
tributed some years ago. Of what value then is an occasional smooth 
bud except to show that here, as elsewhere, mere pubescence is a 
variable and unreliable character of no specific importance whatever? 
The fact is that a similar difference of degree exists in the vestiture of 
the buds of B. ternatum and its var. Jenarioides as that which exists 
between the buds of B. Virginianum and its var. gracile, and we might 
with equal force cuntend for the reestablishment of Pursh’s species on 
this ground. In large forms of B. Virginianum the bud is usually 
very shaggy, while in the small forms it is apt to be scantily clothed, 
and sometimes quite smooth. A similar variation may be found in the 
buds of B. ternatum and its many forms, some being very shaggy, 
others less so, or only sparingly clothed, or even, as in my specimens 
from Sweden, nearly smooth. ‘This, it seems to me, effectually dis- 
poses of any argument based on the mere presence or absence of 
pubescence on the bud. 
Second, as to “its very distinct leaf.” New England botanists who 
have collected “ernatum in any quantity know very well that the differ- 
ent varieties merge into one another by almost imperceptible gradations 
through a great variety of forms, nearly all of which may be found in 
a series of specimens of the var. dissecfum alone, thus showing that the 
mere cutting of the lamina and its consequent differently shaped seg- 
‘ments has no specific importance whatever as a basis for separation. 
Even in individual plants, where the frond of a previous year’s growth 
_ Temains attached, marked differences in the form of the divisions may ~ 
be found, and I have three fronds taken from one plant in different 
years that might be taken for different plants by any one not knowing 
their origin. There are also marked differences in the ultimate seg- 
‘ments of individual plants of lunartoides itself. I doubt if anyone has. 
Of these | 
2 gave 1 to this species to any treatment th that would break it up into as_ aS 
- many species as there are forms. ae ee oe 
“oS soe adeno oene ieee hae ee ” € 
