CATALOGUE. 323 
vated in conservatories in the Atlantic States have fronds generally less compound than those gathered 
on their native hillsides, and it is in these cultivated plants only that I find sterile fronds with the pin- 
nules flattened out. Otherwise the pinnules are closely revolute, and when trifoliolate, as they almost 
always are in a state of nature, they strongly ‘enggest os claws be a oes foot, whence the specific name 
chosen by ae a name which I | f priority. Platyloma 
brachypterum of Moore answers well to a form collected in the “Sierras by Bolander, by Mrs. Austin, and 
by Mrs. Paleifer Ames, a form with minute pinnules when growing on exposed rocks, but with elongated 
ones in a plant wet with spray escaping from a neighboring flume. Moore’s P. bellum seems to be the 
same as the smaller form of var. brachyptera, except that some of the measurements given in The Gard- 
eners’ Chronicle, and copied by Baker in the second edition of Synopsis Filicum (p. 477), are incompre- 
hensible, and probably incorrectly printed. P. bellum of Eastern conservatories is not Moore’s plant, and 
is le inary P. Ornithopus slightly modified by cultivation in a moister atmosphere. 
Pellzea densa, Hooker. 
Rootstocks rather slender, entangled, chaffy with nearly black narrow 
scales; stalks densely tufted, wiry, and very slender, dark chestnut-brown, 
dull or polished, 3-9 inches long; fronds ovate or triangular-oblong in out- 
line, 14-24 inches long, densely tripinnate ; segments 3-6 lines long, linear, 
nearly sessile, sharp-pointed or mucronate, in the fertile fronds entire, and 
having the margin narrowly recurved, and provided with a distinctly paler 
involucre, in the very rare sterile fronds broader and sharply serrated, 
especially towards the apices——Sp. Fil. ii, p. 150, t. exxv, B. Onychium 
densum, Brackenridge, Ferns of U.S. Exploring Exped. p. 120, t. 13, f. 2. 
Sierras of California from the Yosemite to the Castle greg Brewer, Bolander, etc 
Rogue River (Brackenridge), and near Port Orford, Gen. A. V. Kau Near Jackson’s fake’ Woosiine 
Territory, Hayden’s Expedition. A very distinct species, not in the ee elated to those just described. 
Brackenridge, who oaneidered it an Onychium, noticed that the plant bears a close resemblance in habit 
to Cryptogramme acrostichoides, and Hooker remarks the same similarity. A thin cross-section of a seg- 
ment shows the involucre to be a very delicate special organ, growing just within the proper margin of 
the segment. 
§3. PLATYLOMA. J. Smith, Baker. 
‘“‘ Texture coriaceous, the veins usually hidden, the ultimate segments broad 
and flat, the involucre so xarrow that it ts soon hidden by the fruit.” 
Pellzxa Bridgesii, Hooker. 
Stalks 3-6 inches long, wiry, dark-brown, smooth and polished, many 
rising from a short, creeping rootstock, which is chaffy with very narrow 
scales; fronds as long as the stalks, simply pinnate; pinne 5-18 pairs, 
mainly opposite, nearly sessile, glaucous-green, coriaceous, sterile ones 
orbicular or obscurely cordate, 4-5 lines long, rarely larger, fertile ones a 
little narrower, commonly at first conduplicate, and so seemingly lunate; 
involucre narrow, formed of the whitish cartilaginous margin of the pinne, 
