Max file number in single directory

[root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I got this error when I try to proceed my directory

root@larry:~/phones/new_scripts# ls CHEPELARE/*.htm
bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long

cat CHEPELARE/* returns same error as above

while
root@larry:~/phones/new_scripts# ls CHEPELARE/
works fine

the number of files in that dir is fairy big

root@larry:~/phones/new_scripts# ls CHEPELARE/ |wc -l
  30303

Also I'd like to know, if this is general Linux VFS, XFS or file-utils 
implementation restriction/bug or whatever

The sytem is Slack 8.1 with recent cvs snapshot kernel
my root filesystem is XFS.

Kostadin Karaivanov
Senior System Administrator @ Ministry of Finance of Bulgaria