1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



21? 



found the conditions suited to their growth. 

 But there are others more restricted in their dis- 

 tribution, and some are even confined to a single 

 tract a few acres in extent. They belong to the 

 drought-resisting genera Cheilanthes and Notho- 

 Isena, which in summer become entirely dry, 

 their curious fronds rolled up into compact balls, 

 and showing the colored powders, the scales, or 

 the felted hairs of the different species. But 

 although so dry that they crumble in the fingers, 

 and the roots snap like dry twigs, yet they are 

 not dead, and at the first shower the old fronds 

 unroll bright and fresh, and new ones begin to 

 push up around them. The writer has taken 

 them up when in the dry stage and kept them 

 hung in an open shed for six months, and when 

 planted they started into vigorous growth. 



One of the commonest of them is Cheilanthes 

 Fendleri ; its lanceolate frond, six or eight inches 

 long by two wide, is subdivided into minute seg- 

 ments, bright green on the face, and on the back 

 covered with an abundant coating of chaffy 

 scales, white on the young fronds, and passing 

 through different shades of brown until it be- 

 comes ashy-grey on the old ones. In some 

 places it is quite abundant, growing in the crevi- 

 ces of partially shaded rocks. Xearer the sea 

 coast there are two somewhat similar species, C. 

 myriophylla and ( '. ( levelandii. There also grows 

 the most beautiful of the genus, the Lace Fern 

 (C. Californica), whose well proportioned trian- 

 gular frond, supported on a polished brown stipe, 

 is divided and subdivided into thread like seg- 

 ments. It is remarkable in being quite free from 

 the hairs or other appendages so common in 

 members of this genus. On our small hills, Chei- 

 lanthes Cooperse hides itself from the sun at the 

 bottom of deep fissures in the rocks. It is a 

 delicate fern, seldom six inches high, and the 

 fronds have on both sides a light coat of fine long 

 hairs. Still rarer, perhaps the rarest of all North 

 American ferns, is Cheilanthes viscida. It grows, 

 but not at all abundantly, in a few rocky ravines 

 near the mouth of the Arroyo Blanco, a little 

 stream that loses itself in the desert. It clings 

 to seams in the rocks, m positions entirely 

 shielded from the sunshine. Its fronds are 

 almost as finely divided as those of the Lace 

 Fern, but are narrowly lanceolate in outline, 

 and about six by one and a half inches. They 

 are covered with a viscid secretion, so abundant 

 as to cause them to strongly adhere to the paper 

 when drying them. 



On all the mountain slopes of this desert re- 



gion, there is an abundant growth of the pretty 

 little Xothol?ena Candida. Its elegant triangular 

 frond is subdivided into numerous, closely set 

 pinnules, and the white powder that is lightly 

 dusted over the frond is more abundant around 

 the edges of them, so that they are set off with 

 a faint silvery border; on the reverse, this pow- 

 der is very plentiful, and in the successive phases 

 of growth, changes from white to yellow, and 

 then brown, and is finally hidden by the rich 

 chocolate of the spore cases. When seen in 

 the summer time closely rolled up, and projected 

 in serried lines from the narrow cracks in which 

 they are rooted, they look like rows of little 

 white and brown fists thrust out in the face of 

 the sun ; for they choose a place exposed to the 

 fullest rigor of his glare, and flourish on bare 

 rocks that become uncomfortably warm to the 

 hand. Yet they are the easiest to cultivate of 

 all the genus, and if kept moist will remain ex- 

 panded all the year. In the same neighborhood 

 there is a plentiful supply of Notholania Parryi, 

 a curious little fern, clothed above and beneath 

 with a close felt of fine, long hairs, white in the 

 young growth, and light brown in age. Its 

 fiivorite place is the shady side of a large, firmly- 

 bedded boulder, but it sometimes grows on the 

 ; shady side of-a rocky bluff. The closely related 

 j Cottony Forn (N. Newberryi), has the same pre- 

 ferences, but finds them in a different region, 

 the dry hills south of the Santa Ana river. It 

 bears a general resemblance to Parry's Fern, but 

 is a little larger (six by one and a half inches), 

 and the tomentum, which exhibits nearly the 

 same range of color, is of a different nature, 

 having in the former a kind of wood-like appear- 

 ance, while that of the present one resembles 

 cotton. It is especially pleasing in early spring, 

 when the milk-white young fronds curl about 

 the bases of the rough stone.s in a charmingly 

 graceful manner. 



Besides the ferns already mentioned, Crypto- 

 gamme achrostichoides has been found in this 

 region, and last year added Woodsia Oregana ; 

 but as the writer has not yet had the good for- 

 tune to see them growing, he can only add their 

 names to complete the list. 



The drought-resisting ferns, such as Gymno- 

 gramme triangularis and the various species of 

 Nothohoa, Cheilanthes and Pellsea would proba- 

 bly be well suited to home cultivation. They 

 are at home in a dry atmosphere, so that the air 

 of stove or furnace heated rooms would not be 

 apt to be as injurious to them as it is to many 



