PELLAEA MICROPHYLLA 
than our form. But I am 
difference in size, ete., and i 
] 
105 
as yet unwilling to admit that the 
in the apie, 
or furrowed rachises, 
amounts to a valid specific distinction.” 
He therefore reduced P. microphylla to a synonym 
of P. pulchella and, so far as I am aware, has been 
followed by all American authors who have had occasion 
to deal with the plant, up to the present time. 
et there are other differences than those noted by 
Kuhn and Eaton (which by themselves would indeed 
be hardly sufficient to constitute a species). 
may be summed up thus: 
P. microphylla 
Basal scales about 6 mm. 
long, more or less crisped in 
drying, glabrous. 
Stipe and rachises bright red- 
own, very slightly or not at all 
glaucous, shallowly channeled 
on the upper side 
Ultimate pinnules very broadly 
ovate or orbicular, 2-4 mm. long, 
Sporangia when young, in 
developed — fronds spread- 
ing and p 
All of the above-noted 
These 
‘P. pulchella 
Basal scales 8-10 mm. long, 
thicker, not crisped in drying, 
viscid. 
Stipe and rachises dark brown, 
terete 
cro 
Itimate pinnules oblong 
rrowed gradually from the 
sub-truncate to te 
times plane and orbicular. 
characters are wholly con- 
stant in the material examined. The most striking 
and remarkable of them is found in the viscid seales of 
Deen mere 
* Ferns of N. Am. 1: 
5 The 
from Paar plants evidently gr 
ed, in which the pinn ‘anaiee were spread out 
pressing or becaus 
€ns, either from poor 
SDecime 
UD state before collection, Soa merely the 
tline cannot be seen except by | 
is so inrolled that its ou 
1878. 
€ measurements jee raeagele Gre of the pinnules were 
taken mostly 
under favorable conditions when 
uite be ays er 
e the plants 
a dried- 
margin, but the ole pinaul 
