THE FERX BULLETIN 



41 



But what was their source. We have been in- 

 formed in every edition of the Manual that Botry- 

 chium simplex is a rare, plant. All through the course 

 of my remarks I understand Botrychium simplex to 

 be the plant found growing on dry hills, first figured 

 and described by Prof. Edward Hitchcock in the 

 American Journal of Science, Vol VI, page 103, 1823, 

 and not one growing "In moist woods, meadows and 

 swamps" as we read in Britton and Brown's Flora. 



I have never seen simplex growing except at New- 

 found Hill. Mr. Eaton told me that he had never 

 noticed the plant at any other station. This of course 

 was before he came to think that immature plants of 

 B. ramosum should be referred to B. simplex. But I 

 should not be guilty of much exaggeration if I were 

 to claim that Mr. Eaton could find Ophioglossum 

 vulgatutn growing in the grass in almost any old 

 field. 



I have no certain knowledge that simplex has ever 

 been found in Xorth Eastern Massachusetts although 

 I do not doubt that it has occasionally been noticed 

 there. At the time I found plants of simplex on New- 

 found Hill I noticed that the species was very variable. 

 I selected the typical and best looking ones for speci- 

 mens which was a mistake but I noted well their 

 general appearance. 



\\ 'hat is the source of these spores that sometimes 

 germinate on dry hills and vegetate into forms of 

 Botrychium some of which have sterile segments with 

 seven lobes, some witb five lobes or three lobes, one 

 lobe, no lobes at all : some with the fertile segments 

 much branched, some with only a few sporanges, yes 

 and some with no sterile segment at all. the plant be- 

 ing merely a little stalk with a few grains at the tip 



