CHEILANTHES. 



63 



— Hooler, Synopsis FiUcurn, p. 134. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 i., p. 309. Eaton, Ferns of North America, i., t. 2. Lowe, Ferns British 

 and Exotic, i., t. 16a. 



C. (Eucheilanthes) viscida — Eu-cheil-anth'-es ; vis'-cid-a (sticky), 

 Dave7iport. 



A very elegant little, greenhouse species, native of North America, where, 

 according to Eaton, it is known as the " Sticky Lip Fern," and where, 

 according to the same authority, it is found growing wild at the White Water 

 Canon in the Colorado Desert, Arizona, and at Downieville Buttes, California ; 

 also on the eastern slope of the Sierra of CaUfornia, near San Gorgorio Pass. 

 Its fronds, oin. to Sin. long, narrow-oblong in outline, and bipinnate (twice 

 divided to the midrib), are borne on wiry, dirk brown, tufted stalks 3in. to 

 oin. long, chaffy at the base, but shining in their upper part ; they are of 

 a herbaceous (soft, papery) texture, minutely glandular, everywhere viscid 

 (sticky), and furnished with from four to six pairs of nearly sessile (almost 

 stalkless) leaflets ^in. long, divided into conspicuously-toothed segments. 

 The sori (spore masses) are disposed from one to three to each segment, 

 where they are covered by curiously-recurved, minute, herbaceous teeth. — 

 Eaton, Ferns of North America, i., t. 12. 



C. (Eucheilanthes) viscosa — Eu-cheil-anth'-es ; vis-co'-sa (clammy), 

 Kaulfuss. 



This very distinct, Central American species, which is generally grown 

 in a stove, but which will be found to thrive admirably under greenhouse 

 treatment, is a native of Mexico and Venezuela. It is easily distinguished 

 from its allies by the triangular outline of its fronds, which are 4in. to 6in. 

 each way, tri- or quadripinnatifid (three or four times divided half-way to 

 the midrib), and borne on strong, upright, wiry stalks 4in. to 6in. long, 

 of a chestnut-brown colour and densely hairy. These fronds, which are 

 pale green in colour and entirely covered with minute, viscid (sticky), 

 glandular hairs, are abundantly produced from a short -creeping rhizome 

 (prostrate stem). The pinna3 (leaflets) are disposed in pairs, the lowest 

 much the largest, and divided into spear-shaped pinnules (leafits) that are 

 sometimes 2in. long, with narrow-linear segments which are again cut down 



