GYMNOGRAMMA TRIANGULARIS. CALIFORNIA GOLD FERN. I 79 



viscosa, and this Mr. Eaton, in a note attached to the specimen, 

 proposes to retain as a varietal name. Specimens from the woods 

 of the Columbia of what Mr. Nuttall seems to have regarded 

 as the normal form have small and rather narrow fronds in pro- 

 portion to the length of the stipe. Some specimens from Mrs. 

 Elwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, have fronds with stipes near 

 a foot in length, and very broadly triangular oudine, this some- 

 what triangular form suggesUng its specific name. In speci- 

 mens collected by Dr. Edward Palmer from Guadalupe Island, 

 off the coast of California, the stipes are not more than two 

 inches long, with the frondose portion of about the same length. 

 In this, as in many other species of Gymnogramma, the under 

 surface is covered by a powdery exudation, and this varies in 

 the specimens in the herbarium cited from deep golden yellow in 

 Mrs. Cooper's specimen to silvery in those from much farther 

 north. 



Many ferns prefer wet places, while others seem as well fitted 

 especially for dry situations. Though this species would be 

 included in the latter class, it is not insensible to the advantages 

 of moisture. Dr. C. C. Parry, who collected it in California, once 

 told the writer of this chapter that it grew in great abundance 

 in the shelter of rocks and edges of ravines, where it could 

 be well moistened by the early winter rains. In southern Cali- 

 fornia he usually found it growing in matted clumps, with fronds 

 of various sizes and degrees of development according to the 

 season or location, all coming up among the remains of stalks of 

 previous seasons. In dry weather they all curled up and exhibited 

 litde but the yellow powdery under surfaces, and from these it 

 takes its common name of ''Gold fern" in California. Another 

 friend. Dr. C. L. Andrews, of Santa Cruz, wridng of the ferns of 

 that part of California, also refers to its moisture-loving pro- 

 pensides as a condition of growth. He says, '' Gymnogramma 

 triangularis is found in all shady places where there are cliffs, 

 some moisture, and a rocky debris with vegetable mold. It 

 clings loosely to the soil, and grows where mosses and liver- 



