— 18— 



of Bauhini (Pin. 305), which, as we have seen, belonged 

 to B. Lunaria, and here undoubtedly is the starting point 

 for B. ramosum Ascherson. To claim anything to the 

 contrary is to decide against the evidence, and it is diffi- 

 cult to see how that name can have any claim upon our 

 consideration, even if it was intended for B. matricarice- 

 folium, since the name ramosa was preoccupied by 

 another plant and our own plant had already been prop- 

 erly named by Braun. 



The next appearance of our plant in anything like 

 definite form was in 1809, when Schkur published it in 

 his Grypt. Gen. tab. 55. fig. b. as Botrychium rutaceum, 

 and this was the first time that it had received a distinctly 

 specific designation. The name rutaceum, however, was 

 already in use by Swartz (1800) for a form of B. terna- 

 tum, and so had no standing. Nevertheless, in 1810 

 Willdenow, and in 18 14 Fries, published our plant under 

 rutaceum, and the latter in 1828 reduced it to the rank of 

 a variety of B. Lunaria, as var. rutaceum. In 1836 it was 

 again restored to specific rank as B. rutaceum (Kirschleg. 

 Prodr. p. 214), and in 1843 received from Braun its 

 present name. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



Plate i. Figures 1 to 8 comprise a series of Ameri- 

 can and European specimens arranged for comparison ; 

 1 and 3 were sent to me by Dr. Christ, and are from the 

 collections of Dr. Hakansson; 4 and 7 were sent to me 

 from Berlin by Dr. Greenman ; 2 is from Dorset, Vt, 

 from Mrs. Terry; 5 and 6 are from Rhode Island, Col- 

 lins and Chamberlain ; and 8 is from Conway, Mass., col- 

 lected by Jesup. Compare especially 4 with 5. and 3 with 

 6. The difference in the development of the fertile pani- 

 cles is, of course, wholly due to the different ages of the 

 specimens. Figures 9 and 10 (Plate 2) are photographed 

 on Luersen's fine figures for comparison. Figure 9, 

 which was collected in Conway, Mass., by Jesup, corre- 

 sponds with Luersen's figures b, c, and d, which repre- 



