  PellÆa ternifolia:—Root-stock short, thick, nodose, chaffy with very narrow dark-brown scales; stalks clustered, purplish-black and polished, three to six inches long; fronds as long as or longer than the stalks, oblong-linear; pinnÆ from four to fifteen pairs, all but a few of the highest ones deeply tripartite; segments elongated-oval or linear-obovate, sub-coriaceous, somewhat glaucous beneath, green above, slightly mucronate, the middle one in large fronds indistinctly petiolulate; fertile ones with the edges much recurved; involucre broad, the edge only membranaceous. PellÆa ternifolia, Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 59.—FÉe, Gen. Fil., p. 129.—Hooker, Sp. Fil., i., p. 142; Fil. Exot., t. xv.—Fournier, Pl. Mex., Crypt., p. 118.—Eaton, Ferns of the Southwest, p. 321. Pteris ternifolia, Cavanilles, “PrÆl. 1801, No. 657.”—Hooker & Greville, Ic. Fil., t. 126. Platyloma ternifolium, J. Smith.—Brackenridge, Fil. U. S. Ex. Exped., p. 94. Allosorus ternifolius, Kunze, in LinnÆa, xxiii., p. 220. Pteris subverticillata, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 103.—Willdenow, Sp. Pl., v., p. 375. Hab.—Texas, TrÉcul, No. 1334, according to Fournier. New Mexico, Wright, according to Hooker in Filices ExoticÆ. The only specimens from Texas which I have of this species were collected by Dr. Sutton Hayes, near the headwaters of the Rio Colorado of Texas. It is a common Mexican species; it is found as far South as Peru, and reap pears in the Hawaiian Islands. Description:—This belongs to the same group of species as P. Wrightiana, brachyptera and Ornithopus. It has the same nodose and scaly root-stock, dark and polished stalk, glaucescent frond and mucronulate pinnules. In Mexico, South America and the Hawaiian Islands it never occurs with more than trifoliolate pinnules, and this is perhaps the best reason for considering P. Wrightiana a distinct species. The pinnÆ are tripartite rather than trifoliolate, while in the other fern just referred to, when trifoliolate the odd pinnule is more distinct and usually stalked, a distinction indicated by Hooker, but for which I am more indebted to the accurate discrimination of Mr. Faxon. In more southern localities the fronds are considerably larger than Dr. Hayes’ specimens, and the segments of the pinnÆ ampler. In very dry seasons the pinnÆ are considerably deflexed. The spores are trivittate as in the related species. |
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