NO. 8 FERNS FROM SOUTH AMERICA — MAXON 9 



NOTHOLAENA AREQUIPENSIS Maxon, sp. nov. 



Plants small, 6 to 10 cm. high, erect, closely tufted. Rhizomes 

 erect or ascending, simple or branched, i to 2 cm. high, 1 cm. or less 

 in diameter, coarsely radicose beneath, paleaceous above, the scales 

 appressed, partly concealed by the persistent imbricate bases of old 

 stipes, yellowish brown to bright castaneous in mass, linear, 3 to 5 

 mm. long, 0.2 to 0.4 mm. broad at the base, long-attenuate (the cells 

 oblong to linear, thin- walled), distantly denticulate, the teeth minute, 

 low, acutish, slightly antrorse. Fronds numerous, 5 to 8 cm. long, 

 long-stipitate, slightly arcuate ; stipes very slender, 2.5 to 5 cm. long, 

 0.3 to 0.5 mm. in diametfer, subappressed-paleaceous, brownish 

 beneath; lamina deltoid-oblong, 2 to 4 cm. long, 1.3 to 2.5 cm. 

 broad, obtuse or acutish, bipinnate ; pinnae about 4 pairs, subopposite, 

 petiolate, the basal pair the largest, distant, rounded-deltoid, 10 to 

 16 mm. long, 7 to 10 mm. broad, with 2 or 3 pairs of segments below 

 the trilobate or tripartite obtuse apex, the basal segments sessile, 

 triangular, pinnately parted or lobed, the others simpler, subsessile ; 

 second pair of pinnae similar, slightly narrower ; lower surface of 

 the lamina (including the slender rachis) densely paleaceous, the 

 scales large, widely imbricate, appressed, ovate-oblong, long-acumi- 

 nate, light reddish brown in their lower part (the cells large, 

 elongate-polygonal, with colored sclerotic partition walls), elsewhere 

 pale yellowish or whitish (the sclerotic partition walls lighter, 

 strongly sinuate), the margins deeply erose-denticulate ; upper 

 surfaces very scantily covered with the recurved attenuate apices 

 of some of the dorsal scales, bearing also a few pale, lax, tortuous, 

 flattish, linear scales, these mostly deciduous ; sori polycarpous, 

 exactly marginal, terminal upon the short branches of the alternate 

 once forked veins, approximate, subcontinuous at maturity, scarcely 

 at all concealed by the slightly revolute unaltered margin ; sporangia 

 glabrous ; spores triplanate, faintly tuberculate. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 761435, collected near 

 Tingo, vicinity of Arequipa, Peru, altitude about 2,300 meters, 

 August 5, 1914, by Dr. and Mrs. J. N. Rose (no. 18797). 



This species, which is known to the writer also from specimens 

 collected at Arequipa, August 8, 1901, by R. S. Williams (no. 2638), 

 appears to be most nearly related to the plant passing as Notholaena 

 scariosa. From this it differs very obviously, however, in its lesser 

 size, the greater delicacy of all its parts, its relatively broader, almost 

 deltoid lamina, and its absolutely unaltered margins, and in having 

 its upper surface only laxly and very sparingly paleaceous instead 



