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region, the fern is not only found far up upon the precipitous 

 hillsides, but also grows on the rocks down in the bottom lands 

 amid debris brought down by the floods which are often so disas- 

 trous on this river in the spring. Specimens so labelled, recently 

 collected by Joseph Crawford, are in the herbarium of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Natural Sciences. These plants, however, 

 are quite small, some of them only an inch or so high, but ap- 

 parently healthy and well fruited. — C. F. Saunders, Philadelphia. 



THE VARIETIES OF BOTRYCHIUM TERNATUM. 



IT is particularly desirable at this time to have special attention 

 given to the various forms or varieties of the so called Bo- 

 try chium ternatum. and that fall notes be made of the habi- 

 tat, time of fruiting and local variation of this species or group 

 of species. It is by no means certain that any of the American 

 forms of Botrychium are the same as the original Osmunda ter- 

 nata of Thunberg, which was described from Japan. Out of the 

 group of forms which Milde in his monograph ( 1869 ) included 

 under B. ternatum, Prantl in his revision (1884) makes eight 

 species, of which three are found in North America. One of 

 these, recently figured in the Botanical Gazette, I believe to be 

 entirely worthy of specific rank. Its period of maturing spores 

 ( early spring ), added to its structural characters, render it a very 

 distinct species. I wish to investigate thoroughly the remaining 

 forms and determine, if possible, their proper rank, and would in- 

 vite the readers of the Fern Bulletin to send notes and speci- 

 mens showing the range of variation in their various localities. If 

 in any locality the species grows both in dry pastures or meadows 

 and also in low shaded ground, I would like specimens from each 

 station, carefully noting date when spores are first matured, rel- 

 ative abundance, and any other data of interest ; particularly I 

 would like specimens of the so-called variety dissectum, which 

 Sprengel described as a distinct species. I find, for instance, that 

 the plant, passing under that name, which grows in the low 

 woods in the vicinity of New York, is entirely different from the 

 forms with which I have always been familiar from Central New 

 York and New England, which grow in dry, unploughed past- 

 ures or along neglected headlands, mostly in the open sunlight* 

 In case two forms grow in the same vicinity, I would like spec- 

 imens of each. 



