136 



Jour. Bot. 34: 307-311. 1896), we have here additional evi- 

 dence that Pursh's Flora was issued at the 7'en' beginning of the 

 year iS i^. No case has come to my notice in which the ques- 

 tion of the respective dates of Rees' Cyclopaedia and Pursh's 

 Flora complicates synonymy. 

 Tarrytown, New York. 



THE FERNS OF NORTHERN CAPE BRETON 

 By C. B. Rohinson 



The fern flora of the peninsula of Nova Scotia is of the same 

 general character as that of New England, differing mainly in the 

 absence of about one third of the species found in the latter. Only 

 one additional form appears, the rare Sdiizaea pnsilla Pursh, col- 

 lected but once, at Grand Lake, near Halifax, by Mrs. Britton. 



In view of this, it is worthy of remark that in the northern 

 part of the island of Cape Breton there are two species, one of 

 them widely distributed, which have never been reported from 

 the peninsula, and several others which occur there but rarely. 



Northern Cape Breton is a country of great natural beauty. 

 Near both eastern and western coasts are ranges of hills, usually 

 from eight to fourteen hundred feet in height, intersected by 

 numerous brooks and river valleys. Except for these, much of 

 the interior is a high table-land, at the extreme north often peat- 

 bog. The flora tiiough destitute of aljMnc forms is of great in- 

 terest, many flowering plants also growing here which are either 

 rarer or missing in the rest of the province. 



P\'rns grow here luxuriantly and in considerable variety. The 

 three Osmundas reach the extreme north and twenty-six species 

 and two varieties of Polypodiacea^ are with few exceptions very 

 widely distributed. 



Dryoptcris Filix-tnas (L.) Schott, which has aroused the most 

 interest among Canadian botanists, is not found at all on the 

 peninsula or in eastern New Brunswick. In Cape Ikcton it was 

 first discovered upon Salt Mountain, Whycocomagh, by Dr. A. 

 \V. II. Lindsay, and subsequently at Aspy liiy, Lake Ainslie. 



