146 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



2100 meters, F. E. & E. S. Clements 73.1; mountains near Pikes Peak, 

 Aug., 1871, ex herb. Canby; Pike National Forest, Guthrie 51G. 



4. Cheilanthes Wootoni Maxon, sp. nov. 



Rhizome epigean, wide-creeping (5-15 cm.), with a few short branches, 

 slender (about 1.5 mm. in diameter), terete, subflexuous, pale brown, 

 deciduously paleaceous, the scales loosely imbricate, subsecund, mostly 

 oblong-ovate or lance-oblong, acutish to long-acuminate, 2-3 mm. long, 

 0.7-0.9 mm. broad, straight or falcate, distantly denticulate, pale brown, 

 membranaceous and concolorous, or sometimes bright glossy brown with 

 pale scariose margins, the middle portion translucent and never strongly 

 sclerotic. Fronds several, erect, distichous, mostly distant (0.5-3 cm. 

 apart), 10-30 cm. long; stipe slender (1 mm. or less in diameter), 5-18 

 cm. long, subflexuous, castaneous, sublustrous, subpersistently paleaceous, 

 the scales pale, linear-attenuate to filiform, ascending; lamina narrowly 

 oblong to lance-oblong, acuminate, 5-18 cm. long, 2-4.5 cm. broad, tri- 

 pinnate, the tertiary segments simple to ternately or pinnately divided; 

 rachis similar to the stipe, persistently paleaceous; pinnae usually ap- 

 proximate, mostly alternate, ascending and usually arcuate, short-stalked, 

 subequal in length, narrowly triangular and acuminate or sometimes 

 several lower ones more broadly triangular and strongly inequilateral 

 (broader on the lower side); rachises and whole under surface of the 

 pinnae covered with widely imbricate scales, these extending beyond the 

 margins of the pinnules and completely covering the numerous minute, 

 obovate or rounded-pyriform, close ultimate segments beneath, the seg- 

 ments glabrous above ; scales pale castaneous or yellowish brown in mass, 

 nearly concolorous, whitish with age (the cells irregularly elongate, with 

 sinuous partition walls), firmly attached at the sinus of the cordate to 

 subcordate base, narrowly ovate, attenuate to a hair-pointed flexuous or 

 tortuous apex, distantly denticulate, conspicuously long-ciliate in the 

 basal part or beyond, the cilia of the larger scales and of the copiously 

 filamentous, reduced under scales intricate, partly recurved between the 

 segments and loosely overlying the upper surface ; sporangia few, large, 

 borne within the rounded, deeply cucullate distal border of the segment, 

 the margin essentially unchanged. Leaf tissue rigidly herbaceous, bright 

 green, minutely papillose, glistening. 



Type in the United States National Herbarium, no. 835554, collected in 

 Madero Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, September 21, 1914, by 

 E. O. Wooton. 



As noted elsewhere this species has hitherto been strangely confused 

 with C. Fendleri, an unusual width of variation being ascribed to the 

 latter species, notwithstanding that the distinguishing characters of the 

 two plants hold without exception and are rather easily made out. In 

 general, C. Wootoni is much more copiously scaly beneath than C. 

 Fendleri, the scales being much slenderer, with long, flexuous, hair- 

 pointed tips, and having numerous cilia, at least in the basal part; the 

 scales of C. Fendleri are at most long-attenuate and are invariably non- 

 ciliate. In C. Wootoni, moreover, the cilia of the larger scales and, more 



