73 



the lowland region has a much more sandy soil than the upland. 

 That the localized plants of the lowland region were brought in 

 by aquatic birds or other animals from the Atlantic coastal re- 

 gions through the Hudson and Mohawk valleys seems most prob- 

 able, since those valleys form a natural water-way in this region. 

 The localized plants are at the extreme limit of their northern 

 range. The waters have not only facilitated introduction but 

 tended to modify temperature, thereby enabling these species to 

 maintain a foothold. What water has done for the localized 

 plants of the lowlands the leaf-mold of the forest floor has done 

 for the localized plants of the uplands. 



CONCERNING WOODVVARDIA PARADOXA, A SUP- 

 POSEDLY NEW FERN FROM BRITISH 

 COLUMBIA 



By L. M. Underwood 



European fern study neglects or denies the usefulness of two 

 features that American botanists have learned to make of prime 

 importance. The first of these is type locality and the second 

 is the necessity of accurate citation. Not long ago the writer had 

 occasion to deliver a polemic on some of the carelessness of con- 

 tinental botanists with regard to this matter.* Two years ago 

 I was told by the worker at Kew, whose latest utterance I am 

 here obliged to criticize, that there was enough to do of " real 

 work " not to make it needful " to be hunting up old names, types 

 of genera and species, and type localities." It is just this ne- 

 glect of old names and type localities that causes some of my 

 British friends to play fast and loose in the matter of making use- 

 less redescriptions of plants as new that were long since de- 

 scribed. Some time ago f I called attention to the fact that when 

 Baron Eggers collected a Lygodiiun in Hispaniola, the first thing 

 Mr. Baker did was to describe it as new without stopping to look 

 up Hispaniola as a type locality for other possible species of 



* A much-named Fern. Torreya 5 : 87-89. 1905. 

 >t Bull. Torrey Club 29 : 620. 1902. 



