7() CHFILANTHES. 



to Cheilauthes, where all the involucres are continuous. Geuerally speak- 

 ing, the less the margins of the pinnules are lobed or divided, the more 

 continuous and Pteroid are the involucres. The difficulties above stated 

 are well and briefly noticed by Presl. " Sori demum confluentes vel sub- 

 continui, aut Pleridi aul Allosaro subsimiles. In quibusdam Cheilanthis 

 speciebus, e. g. in C. microphylla, C. odora, et cael., indusium tam angus- 

 tum observatum, ut nonnunquara vix adesse videalur ; tales species, si sori 

 confluxi marginem frondis undique occupant, Nolholemt simulant.'' Re- 

 moving several species of original Cheilauthes to Casseheera does not seem 

 to me to lessen the difficulty of defining Cheilanthes ; and assuredly in na- 

 tural habit they have nothing to do with the original Casseheera. — I find it 

 vain to attempt to form any well-defined groupes of the species of Cheilan- 

 thes. The ramification is very variable on the same or different specimens 

 of a species : and those four groupes here given must be accepted as merely 

 provisional. 



(Fronds simply pitinate). 



1. Ch. 7)1 icropter is, Sw. ; small, e^'ei-ywhere clothed with 

 glandular hairs, caudex horizontal scaly, roots caespitose wiry 

 fibrous, slipites short densely crowded from one point ebene- 

 ous glossy copiously rufo-paleaceous at the base, fronds li- 

 near 3 — 4 inches long pinnated, pinnae alternate ovale or 

 subrotund crenate at the base obscurely toothed or lobate 

 convex on the upper surface, involucres formed of the mar- 

 gin of the lobes 3 — 5 on each pinnule often confluent convex 

 much infiecled. — Sw. Si/n. Fit. pp. \'2G et 324, t. 3, /. 5. 

 Willd. Sp. PL V. 2^. Abb. 



Hab. Pelileo, Quito, (Swartz). Brazil, Sellotv, (Klolzsch, in Herb. 

 nostr.) Sierra do Tondil, Argentine republic, Tiveedie. — It would be a 

 great boon to the students of Ferns, if the species of Ferns were in general 

 as distinct as the one now under consideration. It is from a finger's length 

 to scarcely a span high, the slipites densely tufted upon a short thick hori- 

 zontal scaly caudex, which sends down numerous wiry fibrous roots. The 

 short stipes and simply pinnated frond as well as the rachis are glandularly 

 hairy: the pinnules are small, generally deflexed, convex, crenated or lo- 

 bate, the teeth or lobes of the crenatures are recurved upon the under sur- 

 face of the frond and constitute the involucres. Cavanilles is perhaps the 

 first botanist who was acquainted with this species, and he sent it to Swartz 

 under the MSS. name of Pteiis microphylla. It appears to be a rave spe- 

 cies. Notwithstanding that it is said to be a native of Quito, and that I 

 possess many excellent collections of plants from thence, I have never re- 

 ceived this from that quarter. My only specimens were gathered by Sellow 

 in (South) Brazil, and in the Argentine provinces by Tweedie. 



(PinncB or pinnules large for the Genus, broad ; while and poivdeiy 

 beneath). 



2. Ch. argentea ; small glabrous glossy brown a little 

 scaly below, caudex short thick creeping, stipites tufted, frond 

 cordately 5-angled tripartite white and pulverulent beneath, 



