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sunk to the depth of three or four inches in the largest plants, 

 one-third to one-half the stem being below the surface. 



There is a peculiar provision for keeping the bud from being 

 covered too deeply by the accumulation of leaves. The bud of 

 the following year, after the development of the current year's 

 growth, grows up into the stem of the present plant, which is 

 hollow for the purpose, to the height of j^-inch or more. There 

 it puts forth a set of roots and lies dormant till the following 

 spring. This provision is common to the Botrychia, and it is not 

 rare to find three sets of roots on a specimen. 



I have two plants of this species which have divided, evi- 

 dently by two buds instead of one being formed, thus having two 

 plants from the same root. I have noticed the same phenomenon 

 in matricaricFfolium,, Virginianum and obliquum. In the first 

 two named I have examples showing three well-developed plants 

 from one root. 



Sunlight apparently is fatal to this plant. Two good locali- 

 ties, one of them the original, have been destroyed by cutting the 

 wood which protected it. In localities where there is an open 

 place in the center, it is found in the deep shade of the south side, 

 but is absent from the opposite side, where the sun's rays strike 

 under the trees. I know of but one locality where it grows on 

 the north side of a run, and there the trees are dense way across. 

 Usually the maple leaves are pressed compactly down by the lin- 

 gering snows of winter, and are held there by the dampness. 

 Many small plants, and often quite large ones, get lost beneath 

 them and fail to reach the surface ; but they may be found by 

 stirring the leaves, and fruit as well, and are apparently as 

 healthy as those which come to the air. 



In size the plants vary from a tiny thread-like stem one inch 

 high, with minute sterile frond and a fertile frond of one or two 

 sporangia, to a slender, usually decumbent specimen nine inches 

 long, of which three inches is below ground. The average 

 height above ground is two inches, and most commonly the 

 sterile lamina is sessile or slightly stalked, less than j^-inch long, 

 the edges inflexed and top bent down, just as it covered the fer- 

 tile division. It often covers the top in fruit, but usually the 

 fertile is a little longer. 



In this state the sterile division bears one lobe or notch on 

 each side, and the apex is emarginate. Often it bears a sporan- 

 gium, and may even bear one or two on each lobe. From this 



