THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 107 
The President notified that the next meeting would 
be in February, 1916. The President read greetings from 
our fellow-member, Mr. Goldfinch, now on active service 
at Gallipoli. 
MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL NOTES.— Continued. 
By A. A. Hamilton. 
Caladenia dilatata, R. Br.—A variable species, as is 
the case with most plants having a wide range. Bentham, 
“‘Blora Australiensis, 6.3882,’’ considers it to. be a variety 
of C. Patersom, R.Br. Fitzgerald, ‘‘ Australian Orchids,’’ 
differs and figures both as distinct species, incidentally 
entering upon a lengthy and interesting dissertation on 
the differences of opinion between the collector, who has 
seen his plants in the field, and the botanist, who is fre- 
quently called upon to give a decision on the evidence of 
dried specimens alone. With many Orchids the colour of 
various parts of the flower is an important factor in de- 
termining the species, and this is frequently lost in the 
process of drying. Mr. Fitzgerald also resuscitates the 
much-debated question as to the line of demarcation be- 
tween a species and a variety, and invites consideration as 
to the manner in which natural hybridisation may affect 
the issue. This species does not appear to occur fre- 
quently in the Port Jackson district (the writer has twice 
seen it in that area, on one occasion at Cook’s River and 
again at Sans Souci, where it was recently collected by 
Mr. E. Breakwell, a member of this Society), though its 
rarity may be more apparent than actual, owing to the 
well-known erratic periodicity of flowering affected by 
members of this family, many of which require some special 
stimulus to induce flowering. A case in point is that of 
Lyperanthus-igricans, R.Br., which appears to only flower 
after the passage of a bush fire. 
Botrychium ternatum, Swartz: Scarborough, Illa- 
warra.—A fern with a tuberous rootstock, whose fertile 
and barren fronds are borne on the same stipes, though 
the fertile frond is rarely seen. The writer has collected 
this fern on several occasions and had it under cultivation, 
but has not had the good fortune to see a fruiting frond 
on a live specimen. In most ferns the young frond is 
rolled up (circinate), but in this and the closely-allied 
genus, Ophioglossum, the fronds do not unfold, but are 
produced in much the same way as the pinnatisect leaves 
