I n i '
Notholæna aêtacea, L ie bm a n n , Mex. Bregn., p. 64.
Cheilanthes Candida, M a r t e n s & G a l e o t t i , Syn. F il. Mex., t. 2 0 , f. 1, a,
(only this figure, according to Kunze, the description at p. 73
and the principal figure belonging to another fern).
Aletcritopteris Candida, F é e , and A. cretacea, F o u r n i e r , PI. Mex., Crypt.,
p. 12 1.
Pteris sulphurea, C a v a n il l e s , “ Proel. 1 8 0 1 , n. 6 6 7 .” — S w a r t z , Syn. Fil.,
p . 10 5 , fid e auctt.
Ceropteris monosticha, Fée, yme. Mem., p. 44, t. xx., f. 2.
* * * Much additional synonymy may be found in Species Filicum
and in some of the other works above referred to, but as much of it
cannot be verified without seeing the original specimens, it is better
not to quote it here.
H a b . — In crevices of rocks, often in places exposed .to the sun,
from Western Texas and New Mexico to San Diego County, California,
and southward to Peru. It is No. 8 2 0 of C h a r l e s W r i g h t ’s first Texas
distribution, and No. 2 1 2 4 of the second. The collectors of the
Mexican Boundary Survey found it on the lower Rio Grande, and on
the Pecos and the San Pedro. A smaller form, with minute rounded
segments, and yellow or yellowish-white powder, Avas discovered in
Spring Valley, San Diego County, California, in 1876, by Miss A n n i e
L. B u r b e c k , and has since been collected at several places in the
southern part of that State by Mr. C l e v e l a n d , Dr. P a r r y and Mr.
W i l l iam S t o u t .
D e s c r i p t i o n : — The root-stock is creeping, but short, and
rather slender. It is adorned with scales having thin brownish
edges and a very rigid blackened midnerve, which remains
long after the more delicate portion has disappeared.
.Dk! ifll
'l l ÎT i
F E R N S OF NO R TH AM E R IC A .
These scales are also found on the lower part of the stalks,
which are clustered on the root-stock, black and polished, slender,
wiry, and from one to about six inches long. The
rachis and all its branches are also black and shining.
The frond is deltoid-ovate in the larger forms, but the
outline becomes almost regularly pentagonal in smaller specimens.
In all the specimens which I have seen, the second
pair of pinnæ are nearly or quite as long as the lowest pair,
and appreciably longer than the third. The lowest pinnæ are
much the broadest, from the fact that the basal pinnules
on the lower side are much elongated, and more compound
than those on the upper side. Sometimes several of the
pinnules on the lower side are longer than the corresponding
ones on the upper side.' The pinnæ are sometimes pinnate,
making the frond fairly bipinnate, but commonly they are
pinnatihd into oblong or more or less rounded lobes. The
upper surface is dull-green, but copiously sprinkled with
minute stalked whitish glands. The under-surface, in the New
Mexican specimens, is covered with bright-white ceraceous
powder, which, however, is absent from the midveins. In the
California specimens this powder becomes yellowish, and
even sulphur - yellow. Examples from Santa Martha, in
Columbia, and from Peru, have the powder of a deep orange-
yellow.
The margin is slightly recurved, but does not form a
true involucre, such as is seen in Cheilanthes farinosa, a
fern otherwise much like the present species. The sporangia