Maxon — Notes on Western Species of Pellaea. 183 



irregularly short-spinulose ; leaf tissue extremely coriaceous, grayish 

 green, pruinose. 



Pellaea longimucronata differs from P. Wrightiana in having the 

 lamina broader and truly bipinnate nearly throughout, trifoliolate pinnae 

 mostly wanting; in its smaller and more numerous pinnules, these more 

 rigid, more slenderly mucronate, and distinctly articulate, being more or 

 jess deciduous with age from the short knob-like petiolules ; and in its 

 harsher, much more coriaceous texture, the pinnules more strongly revo- 

 lute and having an altogether characteristic grayish-pruinose appearance. 

 These characters, though previously noted, have not recently been re- 

 garded as of importance. Yet they were regarded as sufficient for the 

 establishment of two new species by so conservative a botanist as Hooker, 

 who had, moreover, only very scant material; and in the great number 

 of specimens now at hand they are so easily made out and so unmistaka- 

 ble as to leave no doubt of the specific distinctness of the two forms. The 

 supposed intermediate states mentioned by Eaton have not been seen and 

 certainly are not found in his own herbarium, his specimens being defi- 

 nitely referable to one species or the other in about equal number. 



Pellaea longimucronata is apparently very much commoner than P. 

 Wrightiana. It is abundantly represented from New Mexico in the 

 collections of Wooton and Standley in the Organ Mountains, and of 

 Rusby in the Burro Mountains. It is widely distributed in Arizona, being 

 especially common apparently in the Santa Catalina Mountains, here as 

 in the Organ Mountains and elsewhere occurring in association with P. 

 Wrightiana ; the type of P. truncata is from the Mule Mountains. The 

 Colorado record is of specimens collected at Canyon City, Fremont 

 County, by Brandegee,* and this is the only locality given in Ryd berg's 

 Flora of Colorado; it is substantiated by a specimen in the Eaton Herba- 

 rium. The single Utah specimen at hand is from Silver Reef, altitude 

 about 1,050 meters, Jones 5,149 aq. The Nevada specimens are two: Vir- 

 gin River, Bunkerville, Goodding 737 ; Mica Spring, altitude 1,200 meters, 

 Jones 5,055. The last cited specimen includes a frond showing the proxi- 

 mal basal pinnule of the basal pinnae fully pinnate, with three distinct 

 segments. 



Pellaea compacta (Davenp.) Maxon, sp. nov. 



Pellaea Wrightiana compacta Davenp. Cat. Davenp. Herb. Suppl. 46. 

 1883. 



Rhizome woody, multicipital, the branches nodose, short-creeping, 1 

 to 2 cm. long, about 1 cm. thick, freely radicose beneath, densely palea- 

 ceous, the scales dark brown in mass, forming a close tufted covering, 

 linear, long-attenuate, falcate or straight, the characteristic larger ones 

 5 to 7 mm. long, 0.5 to 0.7 mm. broad, with a broad, thick, strongly 

 sclerotic, dark brown, lustrous median band, the borders thin, pale, 

 transparent, plane or distinctly repand, conspicuously and irregularly 

 denticulate; fronds numerous, closely fasciculate, mostly fertile, 20 to 35 

 • Port. & Coult. Syn. Fl. Colo. 153. 1874. 



