12 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



even the most diminutive little plants may be more 

 than ten years old. It would indeed be interesting to 

 learn how totally different buds of intermediate forms 

 of B. Ianceolatum and B. matricariaef olium are relat- 

 ed. This is surely an "internal appearance." 



In reference to this whole subject it may be said 

 that the confusion has been worse confused by the 

 lack of information about the lesser grape ferns 

 among even our best botanists. The plant is so sel- 

 dom collected that many of the makers of botanical 

 manuals never saw a fresh plant, and the arranging 

 in the herbarium has not conduced to further clear- 

 ness. It is now reasonably certain that some of the 

 specimens upon which Dr. Hitchcock founded his de- 

 scription of this species were really young plants of 

 B. matricariaef olium and this accounts for some of 

 the discrepancies that occur in the. descriptions of 

 modern authors most of which have cribbed their in- 

 formation from older writers. If the original de- 

 scriber could not distinguish between the two it is not 

 to be wondered at that others have erred in attempting 

 to follow his description. As a matter of fact, and 

 as Mr. Woynar's prints show, simplex is distinguished 

 from the other small grape ferns by the generally 

 rounded outlines of the leaf segments, which suggest 

 those of the moonwort (B. lunaria). Certain forms 

 of Botrychium matricariaef olium also have these 

 rounded segments and here is doubtless where the 

 confusion between the two plants begins. 



Both D. C. Eaton and Geo. E. Davenport were of 

 the opinion that the form called compositum was the 

 fully matured plant. In this form, which is not easily 

 confused with other species of Botrychium the sterile 

 portion is rather large, springs from near the base of 

 the plant and is inclined to be ternate after the manner 



