70 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
also referred to this species certain specimens from 
New Mexico and Arizona which are not the same. A 
part of these were eventually recognized as being dif- 
ferent; but on the basis of some of the others, which 
were regarded as connecting links with the typical form, 
N. dealbata was reduced to varietal rank under N. nivea, 
in 1883, by Davenport,!° who quoted Baker to the 
effect that “dealbata seems to me now to run gradually 
into nwea.” Underwood restored N. dealbata to specifie 
rank in 1900," but nominally only and without drawing 
any clear distinctions, as may be inferred also from 
his recognizing both N. nivea and N. dealbata as occur- 
ring in New Mexico and Arizona. The facts are, how- 
ever, that N. dealbata is a fairly well-marked species 
confined apparently to Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, 
Arkansas, Oklahoma, and that part of Texas lying from 
the central portion of the State northward; and that 
the plant of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah, 
which has been rather vaguely understood as N. nivea, 
is specifically distinct alike from N. dealbata and true 
tropical American N. nirea. The distinctive characters 
of N. dealbata are mentioned hereafter in comparison 
with the Mexican Border plant, which may appropri- 
ately be known as: 
Notholaena limitanea Maxon, sp. nov.—Rhizome 
decumbent or horizontal, woody, relatively large, 1-4 
em. long, 1-1.5 em. thick, conspicuously chaffy at the 
apex; scales loosely tufted, light castaneous, linear- 
attenuate, 7-10 mm. long, about 0.5 mm. wide, lightly 
flexuous, subentire, with a few stalked, turgid, marginal 
glands. Fronds humerous, cespitose, erect or ascend- 
ing, 8-25 cm. long; stipes 4-12 em. long, very dark 
castaneous or atropurpureous, usually rather slender, 
naked above the curved base, glaucous ; blades deltoid- 
10 Cat. Davenp. Herb. Suppl. 44, 
1 Nat. Ferns, ed. 6, 88. 
