—43— 



Rev. Arthur W. Stanford, of Lowell, Mass., who has passed 

 much time in Japan and collected largely of the ferns, tells me 

 that he found B. ternatum frequent, but never noticed any differ- 

 ence between it and what he had collected about Amherst, Mass., 

 when a student at the college there. The specimen which he has 

 given tome represents the variety obliquum, with bud and spores 

 as in our own forms. Milde records rutaceum and Australe as 

 ordinary Japanese forms, and whether we take one or the other 

 of these forms to represent Thunberg's type the result will be the 

 same. The outline drawing of B. ternatum in the "Illustrated 

 Flora" is a very good representation of obliquum. 



Finally I do not believe that it is possible to maintain spe- 

 cific rank for any of the forms which Milde placed under terna- 

 tum without first disregarding altogether the intermediate forms, 

 a course wholly against nature. — George E. Davenport, Medford, 

 Mass. 



A NEW CHEILANTHES OF THE SECTION ADIANTOPSIS. 



IT was my fortune to be stationed at the Deer Park school-dis- 

 trict, above DunlapP. O., Fresno county, Calif., from Oct., 

 1890, to May, 1891. During this time, among other interest- 

 ing things, I found a small fern which I at first, not having good 

 authorities to consult, referred to Pellaea densa. Subsequently 

 I placed it with Cheilanthes Californica, but doubtfully, owing 

 to its small size and different outline. I sent a root east, and on 

 my return in 1893 it was a fine plant, completely filling a foni- 

 inch pot, very densely set with fronds, which numbered several 

 hundred. Having access to Eaton's " Ferns of North America,'' 

 I was constrained to believe it a very odd form of C. Californica, 

 if indeed it belonged there at all. I sent a few fronds to Prof. 

 Eaton, who examined them and replied that by soaking out and 

 pressing cut flat they were seen to be a small form of C. Califor- 

 nica. This satisfied me until last winter when I received fine 

 specimens of Californica from several localities in San Diego 

 county. A most casual examination suffices to show that, though 

 closely related, they are specifically distinct. Californica is 

 nearly ternate through the great development of the lower pair 

 of pinnae, which are over half the length of the frond, the entire 

 breadth usually equalling the length, while in the Fresno county 

 plant the breadth is rarely .8 the length. Californica is deeply 

 quadripinnatifid in the lower half, tripinnatifid in the upper ; 



