106 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
P. pulchella. In all the Gray Herbarium specimens 
numerous particles of earth and the like small objects 
are adhering to them, and the scales themselves, when 
boiled out, will still, after years of desiccation, stick 
to the dissecting needle. This is a character not found 
in any other species of Pellaea, so far as I am aware, 
and one not at all common among ferns. 
In addition, P. pulchella is, as Eaton noted, ordinarily 
a notably larger plant than P. microphylla. In the 
material examined, the fronds of the latter ranged from 
10 to 23 cm. in height, averaging slightly over 16; 
those of the former from 15 to 35 em., averaging 26. 
The fronds of P. pulchella are, also, generally more 
compound. Both plants, so far as collectors’ labels 
show, inhabit limestone ledges, but their ranges are 
wholly different. P. microphylla is confined to. the 
arid regions of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and ad- 
jacent Mexico. P. pulchella occurs further south, from 
San Luis Potosi to.Chiapas. Taking everything to- 
gether, there can be little doubt that the two plants 
represent two closely related, but clearly and definitely 
distinct, species. 
In the case of P. microphylla, a nomenclatorial ques- 
tion arises. It was published in Linnaea 36: 86 (1869). 
In the same year Fée published another Pellaea micro- 
phylla in his Cryptogames Vasculaires du Brésil. How- 
ever, from data very kindly furnished me by Miss 
Mary A. Day, of the Gray Herbarium, there can be | 
no doubt that the Mettenian publication was the earlier. 
Linnaea was issued in parts. The issue of part 1 of 
volume 36, which, as shown by printers’ marks and 
remnants of the original cover in the Gray Herbarium 
copy, comprised pages 1-128, is noticed in the Botanische 
Zeitung for Sept. 10, 1869. It must, therefore, have 
appeared before that date. The preface of Fée’s Crypto- 
games Vasculaires du Brésil, on the other hand, is dated 
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