The Discovery of Ceterach Dalhousiae in Mexico

Abstract

Few North American ferns carry such interest for the plant geographer as does Ceterach Dalhousiae of Abyssinia and southern Asia, and up to now reported on this continent only from Arizona. Ceterach Dalhousiae (Hook.) C. Chr.1 has long commanded attention from North American students of ferns for its novel distribution, along with its distinctive frond shape.2 Interest in this country began with its discovery in North America under dryish shelving rocks between Brown and Tanner's Canyons, in the Huachuca Mountains of southeastern Arizona in October, 1907, by James H. Ferriss of Joliet, Illinois. At that station Ferris wrote, in the account of the discovery of the fern prepared for the Fern Bulletin (19: 36-38. 1911), that Ceterach was growing in locations similar to those selected by Aspidium juglandifolium [Phanerophlebia auriculata] and Polystichlum aculeatum lobaturm [P. scopulintum]. This locality is about six miles from the Mexican border. Clute described this collection of Ferriss as Asplenium