282 CHARACTEES OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 



158. CHEILANTHES, Sw. (1806). % 

 Hook. Sp. Fil., in part. 



Vernation fasciculate, erect or decumbent, acaulose, 

 caespitose. Fronds bi-tripinnate, rarely simple pinnate, 

 4 to 8 inches or more in height, smooth pilose, glandulose 

 or farinose ; ultimate segments often small. Veins forked, 

 free. Receptacles terminal, punctiform. Indusium reni- 

 form and special to each receptacle, or linear, including 

 two or more contiguous receptacles, forming round, oblong, 

 or linear sori. 



Type. Oheilanthes tenuifolia, Swartz. 



Illust. Hook, and Bauer. Gen. Fil., 1. 106 B. ; Moore Ind. 

 Fil., p. 25 B. and 26 ; J. Sm. Ferns, Brit, and For., 

 fig. 88 ; Hook. Syn. Fil., t. 3, fig. 25. 



OBS. This genus consists of about thirty or forty known 

 species of slender fronded Ferns, widely spread through 

 the tropics and sub-tropical regions of both hemispheres. 

 They vary considerably in size and the divisions of the 

 fronds, as also in the indusium being of various forms, 

 which in some cases might be considered sufficient to be of 

 generic value, but as it often varies in form in the same 

 species it cannot be viewed as of more than specific value. 

 In some it is a distinct, round, inflexed crenule, containing 

 on its axis a single receptacle, in others it is oblong, or 

 more or less elongated, containing two or more receptacles, 

 in some it is straight, in others it is crenulated and wavy. 

 These differences admit of the species being arranged in 

 groups as follows : 



Indusium subrotund or reniform, special to each cluster of 



sporangia. Fronds smooth. 

 Sp. C. monticola, Gard. ; C. pteroides, Sw. ; C. radiata, 



