21 
Fern Notes. VII. 
By Geo. E. Davenport. 
Cheilantnes lanuginosa^ Nutt., var. fibrillosa. {Cfibrillosa^ Dav- J 
enport, provisionally, in herbarium Mass. Hort. Soc'y).— I have 
now had in my possession for more than a year a strange Cheilantha 
from California which has puzzled me greatly. Not being able to 
place it to my entire satisfaction, it was placed in the herbarium 
under the provisional narne of C. fibrillosa^ and held in reserve until 
the present time, when a careful re-examination leads me to refer it 
to C. lanuginosa^ Nutt.. as a variety. My principal object, however, 
in publishing it here is to call the attention of California botanists to 
It with the hope that it may lead to its re-discovery, and the collec- 
tion of sufficient material to render its positive determination more 
certain. 
It apparently comes between, and may ultimately unite, C. lanu- 
ginosa^ and C. Parishii (possibly C Szovitzii as well), and the speci- 
p^ens indicate a plant of corresponding size. It lacks the character- 
istic scales of Parishii^ and, while in every other way nearer to 
la7iuginosa than to Parishii^ differs from the former by its more 
fhizomataceous rootstocks, the presence of distinct fibrous hairs, or 
scales, intermixed with the tomentum, and a remarkable resemblance 
to Nothol^na Newberryi^ for which it might be mistaken, but for the 
strongly revolute margins of the segments. 
A plant with so many characters not distinctly its own is not likely 
to be a welcome addition to this section of Cheilanthes,^ and may 
prove hereafter to be a source of much perplexity to botanists. 
I give a partial description as an aid to those who may have op- 
portunities to search for it: 
Plant 3' to 6' (or more ?) tall; rootstock rhizomataceous, forming 
dense, entangled clumps of short rhizomes clothed with dark, or 
Wackish-brown, linear-lanceolate scales that gradually pass into 
lighter brown, linear (more slender than in lanuginosa) scales mixed 
^ith coarse fibres and tomentum at the base of the stipites, the latter 
chestnut-brown, terete, 2' to 3' long, at first tomentose with fibrous 
scales and wool (similar to that on the roots), becoming smooth with 
^ge; laminae of equal length with, or slightly longer than, the stipites, 
•75' to 1.5' broad, tripinnate, loosely covered with deciduous tomen- 
tum^ that along the rachises beneath persistent, tawny, and mixed 
^ith coarse fibres— whence the nzx^^ fibrillosa. 
Collected by the brothers Parish well down in one of the passes 
that open out on the south side of the San Jacinto Mts., in June 1882. 
^Ir. Parish thinks that it had descended from a higher altitude, where 
It may be looked for. 
_ Cheilanthes myriophylla, Desv., (C elegans, Desv.; C. villosa, Daven- 
Port, provisionally, in herb. Mass. Hort. Soc'y only. Catal. Supple- 
ment), — I have received from Mr. Pringle's rich collection of 1884 an 
unusually fine series of forms of this species collected by him on lime- 
stone cliffs on the Santa Rita Mts- in Arizona. 
The series shows great variation in characters that have frequently 
'^een made use of for specific purposes (such as the size and shape 
