99 



J 



r 



lo, oblong-linear, yellow; style-branches with a short sparse fringe 

 around the base of the nearly truncate tip, which bears a stout, ap- 

 parently deciduous, central bristle. 



Collected on the upper Columbia River in Oreran, 

 T. J. Howell. 



A most interesting ally of the rare S. Greenei, Gray. The re- - 

 markable central bristle of the style-tips is not found save in the 

 young flowers, whence I infer it to be deciduous 



•^Polygonum (Avicularia) Parryi.— Annual, 2-3 inches high, s/ 

 diffusely branched, stems smooth and sharply angled; leaves ^-i inch 

 long, hnear, acute, i-nerved ; bracts similar to the leaves ;' sheaths 

 broad and rather large, parted half way down into a fringe of seti- • 

 form, crisped lobes ; flowers sessile, a line or less long ; akenes 

 chestnut-brown, very smooth and shining. 



Yosemite Valley, CaliforniaJune,i88i. Collected by Dr.CC. Parry. 



Near to P. imbricahcm^ Nutt, which it closely resembles; and, 

 since the locality has been gleaned by nearly all the botanists who 

 have collected in the State, it will not be strange if the species has . 

 been collected by other.s and referred to P, imbricatum. It is only 

 under a lens that the excellent characters, found in the stipules and 

 akenes, become apparent. Mr. Watson, however, assures me that 

 nothing like this has before been received at Cambridge. 



Berkeley, Cal, July, 1881. 



93. New or Little-Known Ferns of the United States. No- 10. 



By D. C. Eaton. 

 31. AsPiDiUM TRiFOLiATUM, Swarlz.- - This is another of Mr. A. 

 H. Curtiss's interesting discoveries in Florida. He found it on a 

 rocky hummock in Hernando County, in the middle of April last, 

 and secured a sufficient stock for distribution in his Fascicle H of 

 Florida Ferns. This species belongs to a different section of the 



genus from any other of our North American species of Aspidium. 



The section is named Euaspidium in Synopsis Filicum, and is char- 

 acterized by the ferns composing it (only 7 or 8 in all) having ample 

 foliaceous fronds or pinnae, with copiously-reticulated veinlets and 

 the orbicular indusium of § Polystichum. Mr. Baker's diagnostic 

 character of the species reads thus : " Stalks tufted, 1 foot or more 

 long, brownish, scaly only at the base ; fronds 12-18 inches long, 

 6-12 inches broad, with a large ovate-acuminate terminal pinna nar- 

 rowed or forked at the base, and one or two lateral ones on each 

 side, the lower mostly forked ; texture papyraceo-herbaceous ; pri- 

 mary veins^ distinct to the edge ; areolae fine, copious, with free 

 included veinlets ; sori in rows near the main veins ; involucres one 

 line broad, orbicular, peltate." The range is from Florida, Mexico 

 and Cuba throughout South America to Brazil and Peru. It is a 

 common fern in those countries, and presents some diversities in the 

 shape or cutting of the pinnae. The smaller specimens are three- 

 lobed or trifoliate, whence the specific name, originally bestowed by 

 Petiver and Linnaeus. Plumier called it ," Hemionitis maxima irf- 

 folia," and gave a good nccount of it, and an acceptable fit^ure in 

 his classic work on American Ferns, 



