Pellaea atropurpurea (L.) Link and Pellaea glabella 
Mett. ex Kuhn. 
FREDERIC K. BUTTERS 
At the time thai Prof. F. L. Pickeii’s recent article 
entitled “Is Pellaea glabella Meit. a distinct Species?” 
appeared in the AMERicAN Fern Journal, I had re- 
cently examined all of the specimens of Pellaea atro- 
purpurea and its allies in the Gray Herbarium and the 
Herbarium of the New England Botanical Club in an 
attempt to settle the identity of some ferns of this 
group from western Canada, and it may be of interest 
to record some of the facts which were disclosed by this 
study. 
Of the fern genera represented in the eastern United 
tates, Pellaea and the closely related genus Cheilanthes 
are peculiar in reaching our area from the south by way 
of South America, Mexico, and the southwestern part 
of the United States. Pellaea is a typical ausiral genus, 
highly developed in vemperate and tropical south Africa, 
the Malayan region, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and 
the Andes of South America, while it is entirely wanting 
from Europe, the Mediterranean part of Africa, and 
from Asia north of the Himalayas. Moreover, unlike 
many genera and even species of Andean ferns, it is 
hearly absent from ihe Wesi Indies.! In Mexico there 
are about iwenty species of this genus, and in our 
Southwesiern states over a dozen, while in the eastern 
Portion of North America there are only the species 
here discussed and Pellaea densa, which occurs from 
California to British Columbia and western Montana, 
(reer eee 
_ The only species which is known to occur in the West Indies is the 
Widely distributed P. ternifolia, which was found by Baron Eggers in the 
, : : ss 
mounta 
Ose i, ha 
&r parts of the West Indies. See Urban, Ign., Zur Hochbirgs Flora 
Sto. Domingo. Symbolae Antillanae 6: 286 et seq. 1909. 
77 
