15 67 



closely resembles the var. affine (Fisch, and Mey.), occurs in the Rocky Mts. (Mon- 

 tana, Idaho), where rather typical forms also are met with (Utah, New Mexico, 

 Arizona, California). 



hi Mexico, where the following species is frequent, true D. filix mas is rare; 

 the specimens referred here belong to a form, which approaches the following 

 species, but it does not differ from D. filix mas in the main characters. This 

 Mexican form varies considerably in the degree of cutting, from merely bipinna- 

 tifid to deeply tripinnatifid. Very large specimens collected by Schaffner (B, 

 without exact locality) are not unlike the subspecies elongata (Sw.) and belong 

 perhaps to a distinct variety. 



State of Mexico: Nevada de Toluca, J. N. Hose and Painter nr 7944 (W), 

 State of Oaxaca: Sierra de San Felipe, Charles L. Smith nr. 2076 (W). 

 State of Puebla: Ixtaccihuatl, 2G1(I m., F. Nicolas nr. 5550 (RB). 



3. Dryopteris paleacea (Sw.) C. Chr. Amer. Fern Journal 1: 94, 1911. 



Syn.: Asjiidium paleaceiun Sw. Syn. 52, 1806; Fourn. Mex. pi. 1: 92, 1872. 



Aspicliiim parallelogrammiim Kze. Linnaea V-i: 146, 1839. 



üichasiiim parallelogrammiim Fée, Gen. 302 tab. 23 B fig. 1. 1850 — 52. 



Asi)idiiim resp. Nephrodium fili.v mas var. parallelogrammiim resp. palea- 



ceiim auctt. plur. 



Aspidiam crinitum Mart, et Gal. Mém. Ac. Brux. lô: 66 tab. 17, fig. 2, 1842. 



Aspidiiim Pseudo-Filix-mas Fée, 8 mém. 103, 1857. 



Aspidiiim chrysocarpon Fee, 8 mém. 103, 1857. 

 Type from Peru (Lagasca). Not seen. 



It is beyond question that A. paleaceiim Sw. is identical with A. parallelo- 

 grammiim Kze. from Mexico, leg. Karwinskv (B!). The specific name lias been 

 attributed to Don, who under that name described a similar form from Himalaya 

 (Prod. Fl. Nepal. 4, 1825), which is A. patentissimum Wall. 



In treating this widely distributed American fern as a species, which by most 

 authors is referred to D. filix mas as a variety, I have several reasons for doing 

 so. It is very often identified with Central-Asiatic forms of D. filix mas, espe- 

 cially with the varieties /ja/e/i/zssima ami fibrillosa Clarke; I have, however, never 

 seen Asiatic forms, which entirely agree with the American one. D. paleacea is a 

 rather uniform species, which constantly dillers from D. filix mas by the following 

 characters: 1) Stipe and rachis very densely clothed with 1 — 2 cm. long, narrow, 

 blackish or reddish, glossy, divaricating scales, 2) lamina always bipinnatifid, never 

 bipinnate, 3) pinnæ not widened at base, long acuminated and sharply serrated to 

 the very apex, the lower ones, which are somewhat reduced, not subdeltoid, 4) 

 segments with parallel, entire or very faintly toothed edges, the apex truncate with 

 3 — 5 short teeth, the basal ones not enlarged and lobed (still often with an interne 

 auricle), rarely free, 5) texture chartaceous or coriaceous. — The indusium is large 

 and often biscutelloid (as Fee termed it), which is especially the case in the an- 



