HYPOLBPIS. 59 



3. HypoLEns, Bernh. 



(Hook. Gen. Fil. Tab. LXVII. A. j" Cheilanthes ") and 

 B.) — Cheilanthis Sp. Sw. el Aiict. Adianti Sp. Borij. Loii- 

 chitidis Sp. L. 



Sori marginal, subglobose, small, distinct, uniform. Invo- 

 lucre of the same shape as the sorus, formed of the more or less 

 changed and reflected margin of the frond, usually situated in 

 a sinus and covering the sorus, which occupies the apex of a 

 veinlet. — Tropical or subtropical Ferns, having a more or 

 less creeping rhizoma. Fronds variable^ simply pinnated or 

 more frequently bi- tri- quadri- pinnate; sometimes coni- 

 poundly pinnatifid (H. Californica), generally membrana- 

 ceous or cliartaceoiis^ rachis and stipes sometimes opaque 

 and pubescent or muricated, sometimes ebeneous and very 

 glossy. Sori frequently in a sinus of the lobes or teeth of the 

 pinnule, and occupying their lower and inner side. Vein- 

 lets forked, free, often diverging, never anastomosing, the 

 apex of a single one bearing the sorus. 



Obs. With few exceptions, the species of this genus have been referred 

 to Cheilanthes. It was established by Bernhardi, in Schrader's ' Neues 

 Journal fiir die Botanik,' erster band, p. 34. " Hypolepis ; Sporangia 

 catheto-gyrata in receptaculo punctiforrai. Hyposporaiufia propria semior- 

 bicularia, margine recto affixa, circulari, libera." — The only Fern which 

 he refers to it is Lonchitis tenuifolia, Forst. (Cheilanthes arborescens, Sw.) 

 Presl, in his 'Tenlamen Pteridographiee,' both by the several species he 

 adduces, and by his character of the fronds, " amplas supradecorapositse,'' 

 limits the genus to those very much branched and generally membra- 

 naceous species (corresponding with the Microlepia-gxou\t of Dicksonia), 

 — and of which Lonchites tenuifolia, L., is the type : and Mr. J. Smith 

 adopts the same view of the genus Hypolepis as Presl, as we find by the 

 references in his ' Arrangement and Definition of the Genera of Ferns,' 

 and by his remarks there. " This genus," he observes, " is formed of a 

 group of species characterized by their large decompound fronds, which 

 arise from a lengthened creeping rhizoma, similar in habit to some of the 

 large-fronded species of Poh/podium, and difl'ering from them only in the 

 soriferous creuule being altered in texture, and reflexed, forming a simple 

 lateral indusium with the sporangia in its axis, and therefore not distinct 

 in that respect from the genus Cheilanthes : but their whole habit natu- 

 rally indicates them to be a distinct group from the species which I retain 

 as true Cheilanthes.^' — Bi'actically, however, it seems impossible to restrict 

 Hypolepis to the large decompound fronds. Species with less divided fronds, 

 yet in other respects of similar habit, claim admission, and I cannot in any 

 way see how the composition alone can form the character of this or any 

 other genus of Ferns. Kunze, though he does not adopt the genus Hypole- 

 pis, yet often alludes to it as a genus of others, and in his ' Index Filicum in 

 Hortis EuropjEis cultarum,' in vol.23 of the 'Linneea,' under C'Aei/aH/Aes, 

 has distinguished by the letter (b) what would be Hypolepis, and it is quite 



