60 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



8500ft. ; it is also found in Italy and Dalmatia. Its delicate fronds, 3in. 

 to 6in. long and a little more than lin. broad, are bipinnatifid (twice divided 

 half-way to the midrib), and furnished with leaflets somewhat triangular in 



shape and opposite. Their pinnules are cut 

 down into small, roundish, beaded segments. 

 The uj^per surface of the fronds is green 

 and shghtly hairy ; while their lower surface 

 is densely matted with a coat of pale brown, 

 woolly hairs, and the margin of the seg- 

 ments is much incurved. The sori (spore 

 masses), small and abundant, are disposed 

 on the margin of the segments, C. persica 

 of Mettenius and Nothochloena persica of 

 Bory are synonymous with this species. 

 Fig. 12 is reduced from Col. Beddome's 

 " Ferns of British India," by the kind per- 

 mission of the author. — Hooker, Species 

 Filicum, ii., p. 98, t. 98. Beddome, Ferns 

 of British India, t. 145. 



. C. (Eucheilanthes) tenuifolia — ten-u- 



if-oF-i-a (slender-leaved), Swartz. 

 Fig. 12. Cheilanthes Szovitzii 



(1 nat. size). This pretty, delicate-lookmg, greenhouse 



species has a remarkably wide range of 



habitat, for while it is reported as found in New Zealand, Austraha, and 



southward to Tasmania, it is also known in the Malayan Peninsula 



and Islands, in South-East China, in the Polynesian Islands, and in the 



Sub- Tropical region of the Himalayas ; and Beddome states that it is 



a common Fern in dry localities all over the Madras Presidency, where it is 



not found at any great elevation. Its fronds, 4in. to Sin. long, 3in. to 



4in. broad, and tripinnatifid (three times divided half-way to the midrib), 



are borne on wiry, flexuose (bending), naked stalks 4in. to Sin. long, of 



a dark chestnut-brown colour and slightly scaly at their base. The numerous 



leaflets are disposed in opposite pairs, the lowest Sin. to 4in. long, lin. to 



2in. broad, and divided into pinnules (leafits) which are largest on the 



