—26— 



Habitat : Damp soil ; plains near Flor de Maria. State of 

 Mexico (C. G. Pringle, 1890. No. 3459 ) 



Placed beside L Nuttalli, I. Butleri and the European I. 

 Hystrix, this could not be separated save by a more or less close 

 examination. Its persistent leaf-bases, though small, and its 

 horny, scale-like leaf rudiments, found between the annual cycles 

 of growth, connect the American with the European terrestrial 

 species. This group is quite marked, and has, indeed, been sepa- 

 rated as a different genus. 



I. Montezuma* differs from I. Mexicana Undw., with which 

 it was at first confounded, by its fewer, shorter leaves, spotted 

 sporangia, shorter ligula, persistent leaf-bases, larger and more 

 prominently tubercled macrospores, and larger spinulose micro- 

 spores — the largest yet observed in the genus. ( I have seen I- 

 Mexicana only from immature, doubtfully typical specimens 

 from lower California. My comparison is made with Under- 

 wood's description in Bot. Gaz. xiii. 4.) 



From I. Butleri, its nearest congener. I. Montezumse differs 

 in having a narrower wing, smaller more prominently marked 

 macrospores, more densely spinulose microspores, more slender 

 and attenuate leaves, persistent cortex and leaf- bases. Of nine 

 specimens, three are wholly male ; among the remaining six, I 

 found one with two microsporangia mixed in with macrosporan- 

 gia, and there were microspores in the old cortex, indicating an 

 alternation of generations, as is sometimes 'the case with Euro- 

 pean terrestrial species. — A. A. Eaton, Seabrook, N. H. 



HIS little evergreen fern is found in considerable abundance 



on the shaded limestone cliffs and outcroppings upon the 



steep, wooded hills which line the lower Susquehanna 

 river, in York and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania. It loves 

 to grow in the crevices of rocks and along ledges, often rooted 

 deep in the horizontal chinks, so that only the upper part of the 

 frond shows, protuding like so many green tongue- tips from half 

 open jaws. The color is a rather dingy green, which makes the 

 plant somewhat difficult to detect against the gray back-ground 

 of the rock. The fronds, which are often quite numerous from 

 one bunch of roots, have a reclining habit, according to my ob- 

 servation, even when growing on the surface of the rock. Speci- 



ASPLEN1UM MONTANUM. 



