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104 F E R N S OF NO R TH AM E R IC A .
Adiantum Chilense, var. hirsutum,- H o o k e r , Sp. Fil., ii., p. 43 (in
part). — E a t o n , in Bot. Mex. Boundary, p. 233.
Adiantum pilosum, E a t o n , in Robinson’s , Catalogue, but not o f Fée,
whose plant is said by Keyserling to be A . Chilense.
H a h .— A single specimen in the Herbarium at Kew is marked
by Mr. Nuttall; — “ Adiantum ^dilatatum, Nutt., Monterey, Cal.” I
cannot learn that any one has found it in California since his time,
nor does the specimen accord perfectly with the type of the species.
I'he true plant was collected in a rocky ravine near the mouth of the
Rio Pecos, in Western Texas, during the Survey of the Mexican Boundary.
I have E r v e n d b e r g ’s N o . i i , from Wartenberg, in the province
of Huasteca, Mexico, referred to this species by Keyserling, and specimens
from the ruins of Uxmal, in Yucatan, collected by A r t h u r S c h o t t
( N o . 687). Fée established the species on G a l e o t t i ’s N o . 6445, collected
on rocks along the shore of Rio Grande de Lerma, near Giiad-
alaxara. L ie bm zUs’n ’s plants were gathered on calcareous cliffs near
Papantia, and Keyserling states that K a r w in s k y ’s specimens came from
the apex of a pyramid near the same place.
D e s c r i p t i o n : — This, t h e rarest of t h e North American
species of Maidenhair, belongs to the same subsection with
the Californian Maidenhair and the true Venus-hair, a subsection
characterized by the ovate-pyramidal decompound fronds,
by the terminal pinnules having a rounded outer or upper
margin, and by the veinlets running to the points of the
teeth rather than to the minute indentations between them.
The remaining species of this subsection,' in Keyserling’s
■ K eyserling’s arrangement o f the geniis is altogether the most satisfactory o f all
that have been published. He divides the genus into four sections: — S im p lic ia , R a d i-
F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A . 105
arrangement, are A . Æthiopicum, A . venustum, A . Andícola
and A . glaucophyllum.
Flow long the root-stock may be I cannot tell, having
only a fragment: Fée says it is “ rampant',’ an expression
equivalent to our “ creeping.” The scales with which it is
covered are ovate-acuminate, toothed with often recurved
processes, and of a brownish-yellow color. A section of the
single fibro-vascular bundle has the form of a broad open V.
The fronds are from six inches to a foot long, triangular
ovate in outline, and three or four times pinnate at the base,
gradually becoming simpler towards the apex. The primary
pinnæ are mostly alternate, there being from five to seven
compound ones on each side, besides a smaller number of
simple pinnæ towards the apex. The arrangement of the
pinnules is anadromous throughout the frond, the pinnule
nearest the rachis or midrib being on the upper side of the
pinnæ, as it is, indeed, in the whole genus.
The pinnules of the Texas specimen are only three or
four lines broad, and are roundish with a truncate or occasionally
subcordate base. They are generally entire; but a
few of them show a slight tendency to become three-lobcd.
cantia, Acumina ta niA Obtusata. corresponds to WíXJ-éer'j “ Capilliis-Veneris
group,” and comprises nineteen species, two in A r t icu la ta , seven (including our present
plant) in D en ta lia , and ten in In terdentalia. Fée’s specific character o f A . tricholepis
reads thus: — F ronde ovale cn son pourtour; pétiole et rachis glabres, lisses, de couleur
noire-foncée ; frondiiles arrondies, assez longuement pétiolulées, poilues sur les deux lames ;
sporothbccs trbs-peu nombreux, de grandeur inégale ; indusium très-velu ; rhizome rampant,
écailleux ; écailles linéaires, aciiminées, fauves.”
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