MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 59 
The systematic position of N. leonina is next to N. pringlei Davenp. and N, bryo- 
poda Maxon. From the former, which it resembles superficially, it differs in 
the delicately glandular-papillate (not coarsely and irregularly denticulate) tips 
of the rhizome scales, in its very slender terete blackish (not stout sulcate yellowish 
brown) stipes, in the lesser degree of subdivision of the lamina, and in its flat seg- 
ments and less coriaceous leaf tissue. N. pringlei is usually much larger, and has 
shorter segments; and even in its younger states commonly has the lamina tripinnate 
in the lower part. The difference in color and thickness of the stipes is marked. 
Notholaena bryopoda differs from both species in the complete absence of any cera- 
ceous covering to the lamina, and in numerous other particulars, 
Notholaena rosei Maxon, sp. nov. 
Fronds 6 to 8, rigidly erect, 30 to 48 em. high, loosely fasciculate. Rhizome suberect, 
stout, multicipital, 1.5 to 3 cm. in diameter, 4 to 5 cm. long, densely paleaceous, freely 
radicose, and bearing numerous imbricate stipe-bases of old fronds; scales of the rhi- 
zome closely imbricate, lance-acicular, 2 to 2.5 mm, long, very rigid, the center yellow- 
ish brown, the apex and sides lustrous blackish brown and strongly thickened, with a 
delicate lax yellowish white araneose-ciliate outer border; stipes stout, 1.5 to 2 mm, 
in diameter, 8 to 13 cm. long, brownish stramineous from a dull castaneous brownish 
flexuous base, subterete, lightly canaliculate along the anterior face, sparingly and 
deciduously scaly, densely puberulous with glandular-capitate hairs; lamina 20 to 35 
em. long, 7 to 10 cm. broad near the middle, lanceolate, acuminate, deeply tripinnati- 
fid nearly throughout, the rachis similar to the stipe but with a conspicuous narrow 
ventral furrow; pinne few, distant, of a deltoid type, mostly inequilateral, ascending, 
stalked (1 to 3 mm.), the basal pair subopposite and reduced (about 2 cm, long), the 
second pair 5 to 6 cm. distant; middle pinne subopposite, 3 to 5 cm. apart, deltoid- 
ovate, 4 to 5 cm. long, 1.8 to 2.3 cm. broad, comprising about 8 to 10 pairs of distant 
subsessile to adnate pinnules below the pinnately lobed acuminate apex; larger 
pinnules oblong-acuminate to narrowly deltoid-oblong and subcaudate, 10 to 15 mm. 
long, 3 to5 mm. broad, pinnatifid (often nearly to the midvein), the lobes about 4 to 6 
pairs; upper pinne simply pinnate, 1 to 2 cm. apart; leaf tissue herbaceous, bright 
yellowish green and glabrous above, below densely white-ceraceous, partially conceal- 
ing the costze of the pinnules; margins yellowish, a very narrow border slightly meta- 
morphosed and partly covering the sporangia before maturity, early thrust back; 
sporangia dark brown, relatively thick. 
Type in the U.S. National Herbarium, no. 451280, collected on a rocky hillside near 
Chapala, State of Jalisco, Mexico, October 5, 1903, by J. N. Rose and J. H. Painter 
(no. 7665). 
The only other specimens seen are very immature plants of no. 701 of Dr. Edward 
Palmer’s 1886 collection, from the same place. These are mentioned by Davenport! 
as identical with Pringle’s ‘2830,’ which is there described as Notholaena lemmoni 
var. straminea Davenport, var. nov. Mr. Pringle’s type specimens (‘‘2830”), which 
are said to have come from rocky hills near Guadalajara, Jalisco, December, 1888, have 
not been seen by the writer. They are not at the Gray Herbarium, nor at the Daven- 
port Herbarium in Boston; moreover the number 2830 was given by Mr. Pringle 
(perhaps subsequently) to a flowering plant (Asclepias mexicana) which was actually 
distributed in his regular series. Judging from the brief description, Palmer 701 is the 
same as Pringle ‘‘2830,’’ the type of var. straminea; but this is by no means certain. 
Possibly no. “2830” may be contained in the Pringle Herbarium. This is now the 
property of the University of Vermont and available for study only to investigators 
who will consult it in Burlington, Vt. Under the circumstances it seems advisable 
not to make up the varietal name for this species. 
Notholaena rosei is so dissimilar in every respect from N. lemmoni that one wonders 
upon what common ground the comparison of relationship could have been instituted 
1 Garden and Forest 4: 519. 1891. 
