THE FERN BULLETIN 



VOL. IX. OCTOBER, 1901. NO. 4. 



CALIFORNIA FERN GOSSIP. 



By S. B. Parish. 



C i T~2 QUISETUM ramosissimum." — One is somewhat presump- 

 tuous to doubt the correctness of the identification of a 

 plant, when he has never seen the specimen; and this 

 note may expose me to such an accusation, especially as it dis- 

 turbs what appears to be the last lingering hold of this African 

 scouring rush on a place in the American Flora. Nevertheless, 

 I will venture the opinion that Dr. Davidson's Los Angeles speci- 

 mens, which, in Mr. Mason's recent list, Mr. Eaton has referred 

 to this species, will be found to be really one of the forms of that 

 very variable plant which we are calling E. Mexicatium Milde. 

 What may prove to be the correct name of this I have no idea, 

 and await with interest the time when Mr. Eaton shall reach it 

 and tell us. 



California Ferns Which Grow on Trees. — Mr. Maxon very 

 properly calls attention in a recent Fern Bulletin to my slip in 

 asserting that Polypodium scouleri was the only California fern 

 which grew on trees. I should have remembered that this habit 

 in P. falcatum, of which he gives instances, had been noted by 

 all who have written of our western ferns. Dr. D. C. Eaton 

 notices it in Brewer & Watson, Bot. Cal. 2: 334 (i83o) ; Mr. Lem- 

 mon in his Pacific Coast Ferns, 6 (1882); and Mr. Jones in Ferns 

 of the West, 12 (1SS2). In both P. scouleri and P. falcatumthQ 

 tree habitat appears to be more common than growth in soil or 

 among rocks. But it will be observed that this habit confines both 

 ferns to the moist and temperate redwood belt. Dr. Eaton tells 

 us that in the same region P. vulgare also grows on tree trunks. 

 But such a habit is inconsistent with the conditions which prevail 

 in the more arid parts of the State. If any one has seen a tree- 

 inhabiting fern outside of the redwood belt, the fact would be 

 worth making known. 



Cheilanthes fibrillosa and C. Parishii. — It is now some 

 twenty years since the type specimens of these two species were 



