Pellæa Weddelliana, Fée, 8me Mem., p. 74.
Pellæa mucronata, E a ton, in Bot. Mex. Boundary, p. 233, in pare.—
H ooker. & B a k e r , Syn. Fil., p. 148.
H ah. — Western Texas and Colorado to New Mexico and Arizona,
W r ig h t , N os. 2 130 and 2 1 3 1 , B r a n d e g e e , R o t i iro c k , Mrs. S u m n e r , etc.
Also in Bolivia. It occurs mostly in exposed rocky places, especially
in canons. Attributed also to California in Synopsis Filicum, but probably
through some error, as I have seen no true P. Wrightiana from
that State.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — This fern has a somewhat woody branched
and knotted root-stock, which is densely covered with fuscous-
brown scales, linear-acuminate in shape, denticulate along the
edges, and mostly provided with a rigid blackish midnerve.
The stalks are very numerous, and persist long after the
fronds have been broken off: they are almost black, but with
a vinous tinge, wiry, rigid and highly polished. They are
rounded at the back, and flattened or slightly furrowed in
front. The section shows a firm exterior sheath, within which
is brownish parenchyma, and in the middle a single rather
large fibro-vascular bundle, which is in general roundish in
form, but has a sharp furrow opposite the flattened side of
the stalk.
The fronds are rigidly coriaceous, green above, paler and
somewhat glaucous beneath, and in the native home of the
fern probably evergreen. They are four to eight inches long,
strictly bipinnate, and vary in outline from oblong-lanceolate
to deltoid-ovate. The primary pinnæ arc commonly from
nine to fifteen on each side, and are usuially arranged in opposite
pairs. A few of the highest pinnæ arc simple; theii
come a few which are either trifoliate, or else composed of
five pinnately arranged pinnules, and the rest are pinnate
with from two to eight pinnules on each side. The basal
pinnules are so close to the main rachis that the pinnæ
scarcely have perceptible stalks, and the pinnules generally
are also almost sessile. The longest pinnæ of the broadest
fronds are not more than two inches long, and in the narrower
fronds the longest pinnæ are only three-quarters of an
inch long.
The pinnules of sterile fronds are roundish-oval, slightly
cordate at the base, and tipped with a minute cartilaginous
point at the apex. They are three or four lines long, and
two-thirds or three-fourths as broad. In the fertile fronds
the pinnules, which are also mucronate, have their edges
rolled in, often so far as to meet at the midvein. The margin
IS a little thinner, and paler in color than the ’rest of the
pinnule. The veins fork several times, so that the ultimate
veinlets are very close together. The sori are borne on the
veinlets near their tips, and are completely hidden by the
involute margins. The spores are globose, and obscurely
trivittate.
Two of the species originally described by Sir W. J.
Hooker are now considered as slightly different forms of the
same thing. The plant figured by Mr. Faxon in our plate
IS Hooker's P. longimucronata. The original P. Wrightiana