78 Cn[;iLANTHES. 



Bourbon, Cory. Ceylon, Gardner, n. 1 168, Mrs. Qenl. Walker. Phillipiue 

 Islands, Cuming, n. '235. Java, Zollinger. — ^. Oaxaca, Mexico, Galeotti, n. 

 6551. Bombay and other localities, oi'ten growing vvilli var. a. — y. Bundy- 

 droag, Madras, Dr. Wiijltt. — We had two if not more grounds for adopt- 

 ing the specific name a[ '■\farinosa '' for this plant in the ' Icoucs Filicum,' 

 and not (Icalbala of Mr. G. Don. 1. We believed it to be identical with 

 the Pterin farinosa of Forskall : and, 2. There already existed a Ch. deal- 

 bata of Pursh, a N. -American plant. It is true that Pursh's dealbata has 

 been more recently referred to Notholeua, and Kunze has, in his " Notes 

 on some Ferns of the United States" in 'Silliman's Journal' (July, 1848), 

 said, " I would not have looked for this plant under Cheilanthes ;'' — yet we 

 think N^othnlcna treads too closely upon the heels of Cheilanthes to make 

 it desirable to increase vmnecessarily the number of specific names common 

 to both. In regard to the identity of our Ch.farini>sa and the Pteris fari- 

 nosa, published in 1775, of Forskal, it is probable that authors differ from 

 us on that ground rather in consequence of the locality (Egypt) than from 

 any positively distinct character traceable in Forskal's description or Vahl's 

 figure : few probably have seen authentic specimens. Kunze however 

 observes (' Linna;a,' xxiv. p, 274), " Cheilanthes (Pteris, Fiirsk.) farinosa, 

 Kaulf. — non Hook, et Grev. — ipso b. auctore in recensione operis laudati 

 jam testante, ab hac nostra differt et adhuc tantum in Arabia et Abyssinia 

 (coll. Schimperiana sub n. 1123) reperta est. DifTerre imprimis videtur pin- 

 nis remotioribus, indusiis contiguis et indumento pulveraceo tenuiore." — 

 We have no access to Kaulfuss' Egyptiaco-Arabian specimen ; but we have 

 before us Schimper's Abyssinian species, n. 1123, and we have no hesitation 

 in saying that it is identical with the ordinaiy East Indian forms above 

 notefl. If then Abyssinia and Arabia be considered its western boundary, 

 it may be traced thence easterly, almost uninterruptedly to Java and the 

 Phillipine islands. Species growing in so vast a range may be expected 

 to vary considerably. The same root, from Abyssinia, of Mr. Schimper, 

 has one frond quite white and pulverident beneath, and another frond with 

 only a faint trace of powdery substance : and this makes it doubtful if our 

 following species {Ch. rufa) should be retained as such. No less striking dif- 

 ferences occur in the involucres, sometimes rounded and distinct, at other 

 times continuous for a great length of the margin, more or less lobed and cut 

 (rarely entire), and more or less toothed or ciliated. Our /3. is never quite des- 

 titute of powdery substance : and I have received from Mexico (Galeotti) 

 what I cannot in any way distinguish from it. y. is a small and compact 

 form, with segments closely packed and so narrow that the back of the 

 frond seems all sori. — Some specimens of Ch. farinosa from Mishmee and 

 Assam have scattered scales all the way up the rachis beneath. 



4. Ch. pnlveracea, Pr. ; "fronds triangular-oblong gla- 

 brous bipinnatififl, pinnaj suboppositc sessile deeply pinna- 

 tifid, laciniic linear-oblong obtuse sinuato-dentate white and 

 farinose beneath, the lower external lacinia^ the longest, invo- 

 lucres squamaiform, stipes paleaceous at the base." Presl, 

 lieliq. Hank. i. p. 64, (excl. syn.) Ch. Candida, Mart, et 

 Galeotti, Fil. p. 73, t. 20, /! 1, C excl. f. 1, «."; Kunze, in 

 Linnaa, xviii. p. 638. AUosorus pulveraceus, Presl, Tent. 

 Pterid. p. 153. 



