482 
Notes. 
Quebec. On examination it was found that the material thus ob- 
tained afforded a complete elucidation of the development and 
structure of the antheridia and archegonia, and a less satisfactory 
series of stages in the segmentation of the embryo. Last summer 
the remaining prothallia were removed, to the number of about 
six hundred, and although they have only been partially studied yet, 
owing to technical difficulties in embedding them, those examined 
have supplied all the lacking stages of the development of the young 
sporophyte. 
All the younger prothallia were found in a single circular depression 
of Sphagnum-moss about ten feet in diameter, near a corduroy road, 
running through the wooded margin of a peat and huckleberry swamp 
at Little Metis, P. Q. Older prothallia were abundant with those 
bearing fertilized and unfertilized archegonia and younger embryos. 
I have also found young sporophytes of several years’ growth in 
the woods on the heights back of Metis ; in the 1 Flats ’ below the 
‘ Whirlpool ’ on the Niagara river, and also in rich woods along 
the valley of the Don, near Toronto. In all the examples last re- 
ferred to the young spore-plant was still attached to the gametophyte. 
It seems probable that the prothallia of our common Canadian species 
of Botrychium are much more easily obtainable than has been hitherto 
supposed. It is necessary to add, however, that although my attention 
has been directed to the subject for some three years past, I have 
not yet succeeded in finding the younger stages of the prothallia in 
any other spot than the Sphagnum-basin in the swamp at Little Metis. 
The gametophyte of Botrychium virginianum is of flattened oval 
shape, the narrower end of the prothallium being terminated by the 
growing-point. My specimens are from two to eighteen millimetres 
in length, by one and a half to eight millimetres in breadth. 
Their thickness increases from the growing apex backwards. 
The sides and lower surface of the prothallium are covered in 
younger specimens with multicellular hairs. In older plants these 
tend to disappear. The middle of the upper surface is occupied 
by a well-defined ridge, upon which the antheridia are situated. 
The archegonia are found on the declivities which slope away from 
the antheridial ridge. 
As might be expected, the younger sexual organs are found nearer 
the growing-point than those of greater age. 
A cross-section of the prothallium reveals to the naked eye the 
