—53- 



back to Milde's beautiful figures of B. matricaricefoliumt Can 

 it be possible that my critic has not seen them ? 



In conclusion it is a pleasure to note ,the fact that Alphonso 

 Wood is thus tardily recognized by a New Englander as a" good 

 botanist" — a condition strangely in contrast with the treatment 

 he received throughout his life from his contemporaries in the 

 same region. It gives some of the rest of us reason to hope that 

 even in things botanical "after death comes the judgment." 



Columbia University, May, igoi. 



A NEW SPECIES OF ASPLENIUM. 



By B. D. Gilbert. 



IN 1853 the United States Government despatched an expedition 

 under commanders Ringgold and Rodgers to map out more 

 accurately some of the island and continental shores of the 

 North Pacific ocean. It was originally composed of five small 

 vessels which kept pretty well together until the last year of the 

 expedition, when the Hancock, a miserable, cranky vessel which 

 the sailors called "Old John," was sent from Japan alone to take 

 soundings and make a chart of the western coast of Kamchatka, 

 along the Okotsk sea, where many American whalers were lost 

 annually by reason of the imperfect maps of that coast. It will 

 be remembered that Kamchatka is a peninsula extending south- 

 east from the main land of eastern Siberia, and separating the 

 Okotsk sea from Behring's sea. The Hancock sailed up the en- 

 tire western coast of Kamchatka, where the botanist of the ex- 

 pedition made such collections as the exigencies of the voyage 

 permitted. Our government, however, has never published the 

 scientific results of the expedition, the only book giving any de- 

 tails of its work being a popular account written by Lieut. John 

 B. Habersham, entitled "My Last Cruise." From this we learn 

 the route that was followed, together with some details of the 

 work done at sea, but hardly a word in regard to the collections 

 made on land. 



The fern here described was evidently collected on the 

 western coast of Kamchatka. A second frond exactly matching 

 it was lately found among the unnamed Aspleniums of the Na- 

 tional Herbarium, by Mr. W. R. Maxon. It was collected by 

 the same expedition and the same persons, on the island of Jezo, 

 Japan, which lies some eight or ten degrees farther south than 

 Kamchatka. Following is the description: 



