—75— 



by the cool stream and ate our lunch, and then turning to an ex- 

 amination of the cliff, gathered, among other things, the type of 

 the fern of which I am writing. This was in March, 1S81, and I 

 was just beginning my acquaintance with the desert flora. Almost 

 every plant was unknown to me, so that my overloaded press 

 could contain but a scanty gathering of any one species. I saw 

 that the fern was new to me, but had no thought that it would 

 prove so to better informed students, and so made no exception in 

 its favor. The few specimens gathered were sent to Mr. Daven- 

 port, who described and figured them in the Bulletin of the Tor- 

 rey Club, S:6r. In April of the next year I revisited the place, 

 confidently expecting to secure a good supply of the new fern, but 

 without succeeding in finding a single specimen. I have never 

 been there since, nor, I am confident, has any other botanist. I 

 hope others may not be deterred by my disappointment, and may 

 be more fortunate. As an aid to such an one I will remind him 

 that the fern has a considerable general resemblance to Notholcena 

 Parryi, which is very abundant in that region ; but it is readily 

 distinguished on close examination. 



Cheilanthes fibril los a grew at the opposite, or western, base 

 of the same mountain, which faces the San Jacinto Plains, and 

 not far from the present little town of Florida. Here a road fol- 

 lowed up the San Jacinto river for some miles, finally leaving it 

 and climbing the mountain side to Strawberry Valley. I am told, 

 for I have not revisited the place, that at present the road does 

 not leave the river at the same point as it did in June, 18S2, when 

 this fern was collected. But not far — less than a mile — above the 

 point where it then began its ascent, I happened on some tufts of 

 a fern, growing among the boulders which strew the dry bed of 

 the river, which proved to be the type of the present species. 

 This collection, too, was very scanty. The late Mr. William 

 Stout was much interested in the Fendleri-myriophylla group of 

 Cheilanthes, and had requested me to send him anything belong- 

 ing to it. So whenever I saw any ferns of this group I was accus- 

 tomed to gather a specimen or two for my correspondent. By the 

 end of the season I had gotten together a considerable representa- 

 tion from different places, and sent the whole lot to Mr. Stout. 

 After his death they came into the hands of Mr. Davenport, who 

 described the San Jacinto specimen as the type of a new variety 

 of C. lanuginosa Nutt. (Torrey Bull , 12:21). In the third edi- 

 tion of " Our Native Ferns," Dr. Underwood published it as a 



