The Fern Lover's Companion 69 



(4) Slender Lip Fern 

 Chcildnthes Feei, C. lanuginosa 



Stipes densely tufted, slender, at first hairy, dark 

 l)rown, sliinins'. Fronds three to eight inches long, ovate- 

 lanceolate, with thickish, distinctly articulated hairs, 

 twice or thrice pinnate. Pinnw ovate, the lowest deltoid. 

 Pinnules divided into minute, densely crowded .segments, 

 the herbaceous margin recurved and forming an almost 

 continuous indusium. 



The slender lij) fern, known also as Fee's fern, is much 

 the smallest of the lip ferns, averaging, Clute tells us, "but 

 two indies high." This is only one-third as tall as the 

 woolly lij} fern and need not be mistaken for it. The 

 fronds form tangled mats difficult to unravel. It grows on 

 dry rocks and cliffs — Illinois and Minnesota to British 

 Columbia, and south to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. 



