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122 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
Var. simplicissimum, L a sch . — “ Plant eleven lines to two and three-
fourths inches high. Sterile lamina two lines long besides the petiole,
elliptical or obovate, entire, the base cordate or narrowed into the petiole ;
spike composed of three to six sporangia.”
Var. inctsicm, M il d e . — “ Plant two inches or more high. Sterile
lamina ovate or elliptical, incised, as much as nine lines long besides the
petiole ; the lobes one or two pairs. The common form.”
Va.r. subcomposiium, L a sci-i . — “ Sterile lamina ovate-rotund; primary
segments three or four pairs, the two or three upper pairs sessile, contiguous,
nearly entire or incised, the lowest pair remote, narrowed at the base
into petioles. A less common form.”
Var. compositum, L a sch . — “ Sterile lamina u p to one inch long, tcrnate,
or composed of three segments like the sterile lamina of var.
incisum. Very rare.”
Var. angusium, M il d e . — “ Sterile lamina oblong, up to six lines long
besides the petiole, segments two pairs, remote, erect-spreading, sub-
spathulate from a narrower base.”
Y u r.fa lla x , M il d e . — “ S t e r i le lam in a a b o v e th e m id d le o f th e p l a n t ;
o th e rw is e a s in v a r . incisum."
H a b . — In pastures and on hillsides from New Brunswick and New
England westward to Lake Superior, Wyoming Territory, and California;
also in Northern Europe.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — Plant of small size, varying in my specimens
from barely an inch high to seven inches, but commonly
about four inches high. The short root-stock is erect, as in the
rest of the species of Botrychium, and bears at the top a peculiar
bud, such as is described at p. 30 of this work. In the present
species, this bud is usually enclosed in the dried sheathing bases
;
FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ,2 3
of the stalks of several former years, giving it an almost bulbous
appearance. Mr. Davenport notices* that both the sterile and
fertile segments are perfectly straight in the bud, and that the
latter is smooth, as it is in all our species except B . ternatuni
and B . Birgmianum. The common stem is usually very short,
forming only from one-twelfth to one-fourth of the whole height
of the plant: but it Is occasionally longer in proportion; and in
some of the specimens collected by Macoun near Lake Superior,
and in a few of Mrs. Barnes’s fine specimens from Northern New
York, the common stalk forms fully one-half of the total length
of the plant. In Milde’s var. fa lla x , the common stalk is more
than half. The whole plant is fleshy, — almost as much so as
in B . Lunaria, and decidedly more so than in B . lanceolatum and
B . matricarieefolium. The sterile segment is distinctly petioled,
the stalk being from one-fourth to three-fourths as long as the
segment itself, rarely even equalling it. In very small plants the
sterile segment is but three or four lines long, stalk included: it
is then roundish-obovate, and nearly or quite entire (var. simfli-
cissimum). In plants a little larger it is more ovate in shape,
and three- to five- lobed (var. incisum).. It becomes ampler in
dimensions, — nine to twelve lines long, — and more decidedly
* S e e a n adm irab le p a p e r b y th is e.xcellent p tc rid o lo g is t on “ V e rn a tio n in
B o try c h ia ,” in th e B u lle tin of th e T o r r e y Botan ic a l C lu b fo r J a n u a ry , 1878. H e
d is c u s s e s v e ry c a re fu lly th e d iffe ren c e s in v e rn a tio n in o u r s ev e ra l Botrychia, and
g iv e s a lso a co n c is e s ta tem e n t of th e d is tin c tio n s w h ich h e h a s o b se rv ed , illu st
r a t in g th em b y s ev e ra l fig u re s from Mr. E m e r to n ’s pen c il. I find th a t on p. 39,
supra, I h av e n o t g iv e n D r. IMilde su ffic ien t c re d it fo r h is o b s e rv a tio n s on th e
b u d s of th is g en u s .
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