1878. j Botany. 181 
rege: NOTES. | 
3 TANY. 
DAVENPORT’S NOTES ON Boi SIMPLEX. —In 1821, the 
late President Hitchcock collected at Conway, Mass. of 
a fern which he at first referred to Botrychium lunaria Two 
years later, however, he published in Silliman’s Journal, a 1 aca 
tion of the species, giving to it the name of Botrychium simplex. 
That the species has had an uncertain place in pteridography, is 
evident from Mr. Davenport’s account of its drifting in different 
editions of one work from B. virginianum, Sw.,to B. lanceolatum, 
ngs., to B. matricaniefolium, A. Br. Part of this confusion is ` 
suspected by Mr. Davenport to have arisen from the fact that 
_ President Hitchcock really collected two distinct species, namely, 
B. matricariefolium and B. simplex. This supposition is rendered 
the more probable from the occurrence of the two species in the 
Sony of the original station. 
In clearing up the matter, the author has appeared to avail him- 
self most patiently of every means of discrimination in his power. 
A critical examination of all the specimens known to him to have 
been hitherto collected for B. simplex, is followed by an analysis 
of a portion of Milde’s monograph of the genus Botrychium, an 
by diagnosis of B. simplex and B. matricariæfolium. Mr. Daven- 
port’s studies were carried on without a knowledge of Milde’s 
paper, and his conclusions independently reached are the same as 
those held at one time by Milde. These may be stay as follows, 
in a translation of Milde’s words: 
_. “The characteristics of B. simplex lie :— 
“ist. In the stalked sterile frond approximate to the rhizoma. 
“2d. In the esanei segments of incomplete half-lunate 
ms. 
“3d. In the kind and manner of the evolution of the forms.” 
merton’s figures given in this work exemplify the above 
Gciecless very fully. To this may be added the peculiarities of 
= the spores. B. simplex = large spores closely covered with small 
~, points, never with wart 
op. matrcariefolim is spores which are thickly covered with 
= Marge oo. 
to both Mr. Davenport and Mr. Robinson.—G. L. G. 
_ Movement or an AQUATIC SUBMERGED PLant.—M. Rodier has 
recently made some interesting observations on the rhythmical 
movements ofa well-kaown ea, Ceratophyllum demersum. 
Notes on Botrychium simplex Hitchcock. By Grorce E. DAVENPORT, 1877. 
fone 2 pages, with two TES privately p printed. ) a 
