I ,
ri I
exposed rocks ; but none of the collectors seems to have made
a note of the kind of place where he found it. The fronds are
thickly clustered on a short and nearly erect root-stock, which is
hidden by the broken remains of old stalks. The stalks are wiry,
brittle, shining, and of so dark a brown as to appear almost black.
The fronds are broadly triangular-ovate in outline, and in the
Texan and New-Mexican plant are about four inches long, and at
the base nearly as broad ; so that, while they are fully thrice and
even four times pinnate at the base, they rapidly become simpler
above, and are only bipinnate near the top, and simply pinnate at
the very apex. The primary pinnæ and the larger secondary
pinnæ are mostly alternate ; and the rachises, which are dark and
polished like the stalk, are slightly bent from side to side in a
zigzag manner, though much less markedly so than in Notholæna
Fendleri, figured in the last part of this work. The pinnæ all
have rather long stalks, and even the ultimate pinnules are distinctly
stalked. These pinnules are mostly roundish-ovate, cordate,
and very obtuse. Their length is not more than two lines
in our plant ; though in specimens from Chiapas collected by Dr.
Ghiesbreght (No. 227), and in Bourgeau’s specimens from Escamela,
Mexico, some of them measure two and a half lines. They
are sub-coriaceous in texture, smooth, and almost always strongly
revolute, or else with the sides folded together so as to hide the
fruit ; and the texture of the pinnule is somewhat thinner along
the margin, so that there may be said to be an herbaceous involucre.
The sporangia form a narrow band not remote from the
margin of the pinnules.
A - ■
Among the ferns named by Mettenius, and published after
his decease by Kuhn, is Pellæa microphylla ; which name was
bestowed upon the Northern specimens of the species above
described to distinguish them from the Mexican form, the distinction
being, according to Kuhn, that the Northern plant has “ furrowed
rachises, and the ultimate pinnules smaller, and cordate.”
The difference in size and form of the pinnules is too slight to be
noticed : but our specimens certainly have the rachises slightly
sulcate, or furro.wed ; and no furrowing is visible on the Chiapas
specimens, which are, moreover, considerably taller and heavier
than our form. But f am as yet unwilling to admit that the difference
in size, &c., and in the terete or the furrowed rachises,
amounts to a valid specific distinction.
Fournier, in the admirable report on the Cryptogamia of
Mexico, has expressed the strange opinion, that Pellæa andromedæfolia
(Fée) should be united with P . pulchella ; znA some of
the specimens which he refers to the latter species surely belong
to the other one.
As the synonymy shows, Mr. John Smith, the veteran excurator
of the Kew Gardens, has considered this fern a Cincinalis,
wrongly supposing the pinnules to be farinose.
Plate XI., Fig. 2. — A single frond of Pellcna pidchella, showing die
upper surface with the root-stock and the remains of old stalks. Below it
are seen three segments or pinnules slightly magnified.
a .lie
■ 1 i
. - 1
I * ■
1 7
1, ■■ ■ '
|"i ' 4
V♦, »
i
(' *.
' ' '( i'-,
■ 7 '
[ - , '■ 4' 1