184 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



cm. long, the thick glossy dark brown flexuous stipes mostly much longer 

 than the lamina, glabrous; lamina narrowly oblong, acuminate, 9 to 13 

 cm. long, 2.5 to 4.5 cm. broad, bipinnate; pinnae about 15 pairs, usually 

 oblique in drying, the basal pair distant, those above gradually closer, 

 those of the apical portion contiguous or imbricate, gradually or abruptly 

 simple; pinnules of the larger pinnae 5 to 7 pairs, simple, nearly uni- 

 form, mostly close, sessile or very short-stalked, with a short cartilaginous 

 mucro, the sterile ones oval or oblong, plane, punctate beneath and with 

 the margins minutely erose; fertile pinnules narrower, broadly revolute, 

 often conduplicate and falcate with age, transversely wrinkled, the 

 slightly thinner margins repand and finely sinuate-dentate; sporangia 

 borne in a broad marginal zone, almost wholly concealed; leaf tissue 

 rigidly spongiose-herbaceous, the surfaces light or grayish green. 



Described originally by Davenport as " a remarkable distinct form 

 with long stipites and densely crowded compact pinnules, collected in the 

 San Bernardino Mts. of California by W. G. Wright. " This collection is 

 not represented in the National Herbarium, but there is a specimen in 

 the Eaton Herbarium, collected in 1879 and ticketed in Wright's hand as 

 " gathered on Mt. San Bernardino at an altitude of 7,000 ft.," which is 

 undoubtedly typical. It is marked by Eaton " var. californica Lemmon," 

 a name apparently unpublished, and agrees with another Eaton specimen, 

 under the same name, marked " San Jacinto Mt., Parish brothers, 1880." 

 According to Parish* the plant is "frequent in the San Bernardino and 

 San Jacinto Mts., growing in stony soil on dry slopes at 6,000 to 8,000 ft. 

 altitude," and "has been collected by Brandegee in the Providence Mts., 

 in the Mojave Desert." 



The following specimens are in the National Herbarium: Among rocks 

 on steep sides of San Jacinto Mountain, July, 1881, S. B. & W. F. Parish 

 511 ; Snow Canyon, San Bernardino Co., alt. 1,800 meters, June 20, 1901, 

 S. B. Parish 5050; stony ridges, San Antonio Mountains, July 11, 1902, 

 Abrams 2684; south slope, Sugarloaf, San Bernardino Mts. , alt. 2,400 

 meters, forming " dense low clumps in slides," July 11, 1906, J. & H. W. 

 Grinnell 215. 



Pellaea compacta is allied to P. mucronata, agreeing in most general 

 characters, but differing sufficiently in its simple, less sharply mucronate 

 pinnules, its congested habit, its long-stipitate fronds, and its more broadly 

 striped rhizome scales. With P. Wrightiana it has no close connection 

 whatever, and from P. longimucronata it differs widely in its lesser size, 

 its congested pinnae, and its close, very short-pointed fertile pinnules, 

 these not only revolute to the middle but commonly conduplicate and 

 distally falcate. Apparently P. compacta grows in company with P. 

 mucronata, and it would be interesting to study their relationship in the 

 field. 



* Fern Bull. 12 : 8. 1904. 



