The pinnules never become much pointed. In the younger 

 fronds they are short, and rounded or blunt, their margins entire 

 or finely toothed, either all around or at the ends only. Later the 

 pinnules grow longer and narrower and the teeth become lobes, 

 in their turn toothed. The pinnules, especially in very large 

 fronds, are frequently irregular, pinnules little more than curves 

 alternating with others several times their length, giving the 

 whole frond a curiously distorted appearance. Sometimes entire 

 clumps are affected. When the plants grow older and the pinnules 

 grow longer and become lobed, each small lobe is very like a 

 pinna of the first fronds starting from the prothallus. The fern 

 thus, in a way, repeats the primary segments of the earlier fronds 

 in the secondary and ultimate segments of the later. 



The general outline of the fronds of this fern and of the fronds 

 of D. Boottii are frequently very similar, and the two ferns at a 

 short distance often bear a striking resemblance to one another, 

 but on closer inspection the likeness vanishes. There is not much 

 danger of confusing cristata x marginalis with tnarginalis. I do 

 not know whether cristata x marginalis really approaches crista- 

 ta more nearly than it does marginalis, or whether the difference 

 between it and marginalis is of a kind more readily seen than the 

 difference between it and cristata, but there is certainly some 

 times difficulty in distinguishing between the two latter. Cristata* 

 like cristata x marginalis, is very variable, and there is apparent- 

 ly a perfect transition through intermediate forms from one to 

 the other ; I am not sure that there is a transition in reality. 



The known stations for cristata xmarginalis are New London, 

 Conn. ; Boxford, Newbury, Merrimac and Medford, Mass. ; War- 

 ren, R. I. ; Pittsford, East Peak and Chittenden, Vt. ; Hampton 

 Falls, N. H. ; Summit, N. J., and Dover, Me. — Abridged from an 

 article by Margaret Slosson in the Plant World. 



A NEW SPECIES OF BOTRYCHIUM. 



By A. A. Eaton. 



T the meeting of the Chapter at Boston, I described and ex- 



hibited specimens of a small Botrychium found growing in 



deep shade in maple swamps. So large a series of speci- 

 mens exhibiting the same characters without sensibly intergrad- 

 ing with any other species was convincing evidence to most pres- 

 ent that its claim to specific rank was unquestionable, which view 



