published views on this species. (Rep. Boston meeting, 25, and 

 Fern Bulletin VII. 1., p. 7). If characters there set forth are 

 not "sound or acceptable," Mr. Davenport not only creates havoc 

 in the genus, but utterly destroys the value, of his most im- 

 portant work upon it. 



In a letter dated August 30, 1895, Mr. Davenport writes : "I 

 should place the BotryeJiium that you send to me with B. simplex, 

 Hitchcock. The specimens are somewhat immature and unsatis- 

 factory, but such as are frequently found under the conditions 

 which you describe." The specimens referred to are from the 

 type locality of icnebrosum. It is because of this opinion that I 

 compared them so carefully with B. simplex in the Report of the 

 Boston meeting. 



It will be seen by reference to the papers mentioned that this 

 has the vernation of B. lunaria, or rather between that species and 

 simplex. So Mr. Davenport will have to admit that he was mis- 

 taken as to the vernation of B. matricariae 'folium (Bull. Tor. 

 Club, Jan. '78), or that he was over-zealous to prove a point. It 

 will also be seen that I have plants up to 9 inches high (and I 

 may add, every possible size between it and the merest thread. 1 

 inch long), so it is abuse of the term to call it "depauperate," for 

 Matricariaefolium is seldom larger. 



I have not had access to Davenport's "Notes on B. simpler," 

 but it appears that he recognizes its spores to be strikingly larger 

 than any others in the genus. How then can he account for a 

 "depauperate" plant having spores larger than even that species, 

 while the plant in its natural condition has them smaller? To 

 be accurate, Matricariaefolium has spores .308-. 396mm.. averaging 

 .352mm. closely covered with large rounded warts. B. tcnebrosum 

 has spores. 396-. 528mm. averaging .484 mm. finely verrucose. I shall 

 await with interest Mr. Davenport's explanation as to why two 

 specimens of the same species, collected side by side, show such 

 a variation in vernation and spores — characters on which he lays 

 greatest stress, and why the "depauperate" one should have 

 spores over .130mm. larger, and differently marked. There are 

 other points on which I wish to speak, but space forbids ; I will say 

 in conclusion that I have collected several thousand specimens of 

 tenebrosum, and have seen a quarter acre almost completely cov- 

 ered with B. Matricariaefolium several years in succession, so 



