CHEILANTIIES. 89 



24. Ch. varians ; root tufted, stipites 4 — inches long 

 slender cbeneous glossy plane and margined on the upper 

 side obsoletely setoso-paleaceous, fronds submenibranac(;ous 

 glabrous about a span long the ])innatifid apex acuminated, 

 pinnated above bipinnated below, primary pinnae distant 

 spreading or a little curved upwards sessile, superior ones 

 lanceolate acuminate sinuato-piunatifid at their base and 

 somewhat auricled at the upper base, lower ones deltoid acu- 

 minate pinnate at their base pinnatifid acuminated (caudate) 

 in the u])])er half, pinnules lanceolate acuminate or acute 

 pinnatifid below, the lowest inferior pinnaj the longest. (Tab. 

 CI 1 1. A.) Pteris varians, fVall. Cat. n. 80. Pt. cajspitosa, 

 Ejusd. Cat. n. 90. Cheilanthes tenuifolia, J. Sinilh, in Hook. 

 Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. p. 404, (w. " 408," from Luzon only). 



Hab. INIountains of Ava, and of Sylhet {De S;/lva), Dr. Wallich. Mcf- 

 gui, Assam, (Simons, n. 26'2). Kliasya, Griffith. Moulmaiue, T. Lobb, 

 n. 391. Luzon, Cuming, n. 408. — Though by no means inclined to unite 

 this, with Mr. J. Smith, to Cheilanthes tenuifolia, I am not indisposed to 

 refer it to the same Genus, though it is very questionable whether it should 

 be placed in Cheilanthes or in Pteris, as our friend Dr. Wallich has done : 

 and if this latter distinguished and zealous botanist were to ask a reason 

 for doing so, I could only say that the fructification is in part Cheilanthoid 

 and in part Pteroid. I am sure if Mr. J. Smith had possessed our nume- 

 rous specimens from Eastern Bengal, and observed their uniformity, he 

 would not have referred it to any described species of Cheilanthes. Dr. 

 Wallich's appropriate name of varians refers to the varying form of the 

 pinnae on the same individual plant; the upper ones are simple and scarcely 

 even lobed, the middle ones are deeply pinnatifid at their base, while the 

 lowest ones are pinnate at their base. The Pt. ccespitosa, Wall., oflfers no 

 point of difference from Pt. varians. Wall. 



25. Ch. Alabame)isis, Kze. j caudex creeping clothed with 

 dense glossy brown woolly scales, stipites 4 — 5 inches long 

 deep glossy black as well as the main and lower part of the 

 secondary rachis which are hairy on one side, fronds quite 

 glabrous subcoriaceous about as long as the stipes broad lan- 

 ceolate acuminate pinnated pinnatifid above below bipinnate, 

 primary pinnae approximate ovate-lanceolate acuminate, pin- 

 nules or lobes of the upper pinna lanceolate rather acute en- 

 tire or auricled or lobate at the base, pinnules of the lowermost 

 pinna? almost again pinnate, involucres submembranaceous 

 mostly continuous all round the lobes and pinnules the edges 

 slightly crose. (Tab. CIII. B.) Kze. in SilUman's JouHn. 

 1848, /). 87. Linncea, 1850, p. 242. Pteris Alabamensis, 

 Buckley, in Sill. Journ. 1848, p. 177. Pteris gracilis, RuqeL 

 Coll. PL Am. (not Kaulf.) 



