324 BOTANY. 



soon flattened out, and exposing a very broad intramarginal band of 

 sporangia. — Sp. Fil. ii, p. 238, t. cxlii, B. 



Sierras of California, usually above the elevation of 6000 feet. Discovered by Thomas Bridges, 

 and since collected by Brewer at Ebbett's Pass (8000-9000 feet elevation) and in Silver Valley on the Big- 

 Tree road, and by Brewer, Torrey, Bolander, etc., in the Yosemite. A curious Fern, very different from all 

 other American species, and only to be compared to P. rotundifolia of New Zealand, which, however, has a 

 shaggy-paleaceous stalk and rachis, Hooker noticed that the margins of the pinnae have a narrow white 

 cartilaginous edge, " but not incurved." But it is plainly incurved in very young specimens. The two 

 sides of each fruiting pinna are at first folded together, hiding the sporangia, and then the pinna is mod- 

 erately curved upwards, giving it a decidedly crescent-like shape. 



Pellaea flexuosa, Link. 



Rootstock creeping, rather slender, the scales narrow, rigid, brown, 

 with a darker midrib; stalks reddish-straw-color, several inches long, passing 

 into a more or less flexuous or zigzag rachis; fronds from a half to two or 

 more feet long, ovate-oblong in outline, twice or the larger ones thrice pin- 

 nate ; secondary and tertiary rachises usually deflected and zigzag, rusty- 

 puberulent or nearly smooth ; pinna? mostly alternate; ultimate pinnules 

 5-10 lines long, roundish-ovate or sub-cordate, very obtuse, distinctly petiolu- 

 late, sub-coriaceous, smooth, slightly glaucous beneath, the margin of 

 fertile pinnules at first reflected and partly covering the sporangia, at length 

 flattened out.— Fil. Hort. Berol. p. 60. Hooker, Sp. Fil. ii, p. 149. Allo- 

 sorus flexuosus, Kaulfuss, Kunze, die Farrnkrauter, p. 46, t. 23. 



From Western Texas and New Mexico (Wright) to Arizona, Camp Crittenden, Dr. Itothrock. 

 Mexico to Peru. This comes very near to P. cordata, J. Smith, and is united with it by Mr. Baker in 

 Synopsis Filicum. The zigzag rachises and strongly deflected branches are a very marked feature, but 

 this character is none too constant. Occasionally there are large-pinnuled plants of P. aniromeda-folia 

 also, which bear a considerable resemblance to the present species. In our territory it reaches its ex- 

 treme northern limit, and the specimens are much smaller than those from Central America. Fomuier, 

 in the Cryptogamia of Mexico, keeps P. cordata and P.flexuosa apart, and Dr. Max Kuhn, in his publi- 

 cation of posthumous species of Mettenius, in Linnoea, vol. 36, has described our plant as a distinct 

 species under the name of P. intermedia. 



VII. PTERIS. Linn. 



Pteris aquilina, Linn., var. lanuginosa, Hooker. 



Frond silky-pubescent or tomentose, especially on the under surface ; 

 otherwise as in the typical eastern form. — Sp. Fil. ii, p. 196. P. lanuginosa, 

 Bory in Willd. Sp. PI. v, p. 403. Hook. & Am. Bot. Beech. Voy. p. 405. 

 Kaulf. Enum. Fil. p. 189. 



Very common throughout California and Oregon, extending northward to Sitka and eastward to 

 Utah. Farther east it passes into less pubescent forms and so into the common form of the Atlantic 



