EDITORIAL. 



In his address at the recent meeting of Fern Stu- 

 dents at Boston, primed in this issue, Mr. Raynal 

 Dodge gave expression to several extremely radical 

 and novel ideas concerning the Botrychiums that 

 may be pondered with profit by all students of these 

 plants. That there is great variability in the whole 

 Botrychium family no one will deny, unless he be one 

 of the few committed to the recent view that every 

 form is a good species. In the past decade the battle 

 has been waged about B. tcrnatiim, or whatever is 

 now regarded as typical of this group, and we have 

 seen variation after variation named as good species. 

 Xow the tide sets in the other direction and as re- 

 cently noted in this publication, fern students are re- 

 turning to the earlier view that Botrychium ternatum 

 or B. obliquwm is a most variable species, and the re- 

 cent "species'' are again being described as forms. A 

 similar state of affairs seems to exist among the lesser 

 Botrychiums. It is well-known that the describer of 

 B. tcucbrosum , Mr. A. A. Eaton, though positive at 

 first that it was a good species, was finally of the opin- 

 ion that it was a mere form of B. matricariacfolium 

 while in the Xew "Gray's Manual" it is listed as a 

 straight synonym for B. simplex. Concerning this 

 latter plant there has always been more or less doubt, 

 and we confess to some suspicion of a species that is 

 accurately described as having the sterile portion at the 

 base, middle or apex )f the stalk. There seems good 

 grounds for believing that this may be only a depauper- 

 ate form of B. matricariacfolium also. The fact that 

 it is a plant of the North and likely to be dwarfed in 

 consequence gives color to the suggestion concerning 

 its relationships. Certainly if matricariacfoliiou 



58 



