MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 603 
From Notholaena cretacea, as restricted above, N. neglecta differs in the 
characters already mentioned. It is compared with W. californica in the notes 
under the latter species. 
Notholaena californica D. C. Eaton, Bull. Torrey Club 10: 27. 1883. 
This species was at first confused with Notholaena candida by Eaton as 
“the California form of that species,’ but was subsequently described by him 
as new under the above name, the description being based chiefly upon speci- 
mens from San Diego County, California, but including characters derived 
from Arizona specimens collected by Lemmon. The choice of specific name, 
the greater amount of California material studied, and the above quoted phrase 
are sufficient to fix the California plant as the typical element of Eaton’s 
species. Lemmon’s Arizona specimens in the National Herbarium are a rather 
small state of NV. neglecta and those in the Eaton Herbarium are doubtless of 
the same species. 
The copious material at hand indicates that N. californica is a well-marked 
species, differing from N. cretecea in its far lesser size and its more distant, 
shorter, and more rounded segments; from N, neglecta in its broadly pentag- 
onal (never elongate) lamina and its relatively broad, rounded-obtuse seg- 
ments; and from both species obviously in its brown to light castaneous (never 
blackish) stipes and rachises and in the peculiar character of its rhizome 
scales. The scales are rigidly subacicular, straight or usually curved, 3.5 to 
4.5 mm. long, 0.17 to 0.26 broad in the basal part, long-attenuate to the filiform 
subflexuous tip, nearly concolorous, dark reddish brown, opaque, with only 
the marginal row of cells in the middle and lower part®of the seale pale, this 
consisting mainly of numerous spreading, unicellular, hyaline teeth, the teeth in 
the apical part of the scale slender, longer (up to 0.15 mm. long), mostly curved 
(often retrorsely), rigid, hyaline or commonly reddish brown and sclerotic. 
There is noted a good deal of variation in the color and the degree of de- 
velopment of the ceraceous covering of the lamina, some of the specimens 
being densely glandular or glandular-viscid beneath and nearly or quite devoid 
of the usual yellowish ceraceous covering. These have sometimes been re- 
ferred to as “the white powdered form.” Their status and relationship are 
not altogether clear, but the variations observed are probably well within the 
species limits and may be correlated with local or seasonal conditions. It is 
possibly this form which was designated by Prantl’ as a new species, NV. albida, 
but never described. 
The following specimens of N. californica are in the National Herbarium: 
CALIFORNIA: Slover Mountain, near Colton, April, 1886, S. B. &@ W. F. 
Parish; May, 1894, 8S. B. Parish; May 4, 1901, S. B. Parish 4739. San 
Bernardino, W. B. Wright. Near Colton, May, 1882, Jones. Agua 
Caliente, desert slope of San Jacinto Mountain, April, 1884, S. B. & 
W. F. Parish 502A; April, 1886, 8S. B. € W. F. Parish 502. Andreas 
and Murray Canyons, Palm Springs (eastern slope of San Jacinto 
Mountain), August 23, 1906, Kearney. Spring Valley, San Diego 
County, Laura F. Kimbatl 21. Mountain Spring, San Diego County, 
May 12, 1894, Schoenfeldt 8078. San Diego County, G. R. Vasey 691, 
Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, February, 1897, and March, 1889, 
Blanche Trask. Without definite locality, Parry &€ Lemmon 429. 
Arizona: Hills 4 miles northwest of Congress Junction, altitude 750 to 
900 meters, February 17, 1912, Wooton. 
4Bot. Jahrb. Engler 3: 405. 1882. 
