NO. 8 FERNS FROM SOUTH AMERICA MAXON 7 



published two years earlier. Even a cursory examination of Colla's 

 illustration should be sufficient to make clear their identity. Baker, 1 

 however, wrongly associated the species name of Colla with a vastly 

 different plant from Peru, collected by the Wilkes Expedition, 

 which departs not only in gross structural characters but very con- 

 spicuously in its large, widely imbricate, denticulate-ciliate scales of 

 the under surface, true N. doradilla being densely tomentose beneath 

 with closely mingled stellate hairs. The Peruvian plant, having 

 never been taken up under a valid name, is here described as 

 Notholaena Brackenridgei, a name given by Baker but published only 

 as a synonym, apparently. It seems to be a rare species and, so far 

 as the writer is aware, has been recollected only by Mr. W. E. Safford. 

 Further particulars are given after the following description : 



NOTHOLAENA BRACKENRIDGEI Baker, sp. nov. 

 "Notholaena doradilla" Baker in Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 371. 1868, not 



Colla, 1836. 

 Notholaena Brackenridgei Baker, loc. cit., as synoynm. 



Plants relatively large and coarse for the genus, erect, 1 8 to 30 cm. 

 high. Rhizome ligneous, erect, 5 cm. high, 2 to 3 cm. thick, densely 

 paleaceous at the summit, the scales closely impacted in an erect tuft, 

 flaccid, linear-ligulate, 5 to 9 mm. long, 0.16 to 0.26 mm. broad at the 

 base, sharply sinuate-flexuous in the apical half, yellowish brown, 

 concolorous, finely lineolate (the cells very narrow, greatly elongate), 

 distantly denticulate toward the apex. Fronds numerous, fascicu- 

 late in a peripheral crown, 15 to 28 cm. long, stiffly erect, mostly 

 long-stipitate ; stipes stout, 6 to 12 cm. long, 1 to 1.7 mm. in diameter, 

 light brown, sublustrous, deciduously paleaceous ; lamina narrowly 

 oblong-lanceolate, 12 to 17 cm. long, 2.5 to 6 cm. broad, acuminate, 

 slightly narrowed at the base, bipinnate-pinnatifid, the rachis stout, 

 terete, similar to the stipe ; larger pinnae about 10 pairs, ascending 

 (45 ), petiolate, plicate in drying, the basal pair distant, subopposite, 

 deltoid-ovate, about 3 cm. long, 2 cm. broad at the cordate base, 

 acutish; middle pinna? closer, larger, alternate, oblong-ovate, 2 to 

 4 cm. long, 1 to 2 cm. broad at the base, with 2 to 4 pairs of short- 

 petiolate pinnules below the pinnately parted, short-acuminate tip ; 

 pinnules deltoid, the larger ones 7 to 11 mm. long, deeply pinnatifid 

 or lobed, abruptly caudate, the lobes (2 or 3 pairs) spreading, oblong, 

 rounded-obtuse ; lower surface of the pinnae densely paleaceous, 

 the scales large, widely imbricate, reddish brown in mass, deltoid- 



^yn. Fil. 371. 1868. 



