Ira L. Wiggins

Notes on Three Ferns from Baja California, Mexico

Several species of small ferns native in Baja California, Mexico, are poorly known to many students of fern taxonomy. Some of them are difficult to identify without access to extensive collections and to a wide range of bibliographic resources. Collections of three such species had been examined, laid aside, reexamined, and again put aside until they were submitted some time ago to Conrad V. Morton, who reported that they were Cheilanthes viscida Davenp., Cheilanthes peninsularis Maxon, and Notholaena peninsularis Maxon & Weatherby. In order to make some of the characteristics of these attractive little ferns more readily apparent to others who may not have an opportunity to acquire or examine specimens from the peninsula, drawings of certain features of each of the above species have been prepared and are presented here. A few additional notes of explanation will, I hope, make the salient characteristics of these three ferns apparent.