PELL/EA. 



47 



P. (Allosorus) alabamensis — All-os-o'-rus ; al-ab-a-men'-sis (from 

 Alabama), Baker. 



Cheilanthes alabamensis, of Kunze, is another name for this very pretty, 

 greenhouse species, which, according to Eaton, is found growing wild on 

 rocks — certainly on sandstone, and perhaps on lime rocks — along the banks of 

 the rivers of Eastern Tennessee, and the Western parts of Virginia and North 

 Carolina ; in Franklin County, Kentucky ; in the valley of the Cohaba River, 

 Alabama ; at the mouth of Rio Pecos, Texas ; and along the lower Rio 

 Grande. The broadly-egg-shaped fronds, borne on wiry, polished, blackish 

 stalks 2in. to 4in. long and covered at the base with fine woolly scales of 

 a reddish-brown colour, are produced from a short-creeping and branched 

 rootstock, which is covered with similar scales. They are 4in. to 8in. long, 

 l^in. to 2in. broad, bi- or tripinnatifid (twice or three times divided nearly 

 to the midrib), and furnished with numerous leaflets of a somewhat leathery 

 texture. The leaflets are closely placed and cut down nearly to the midrib 

 into numerous narrow -oblong segments, most of which are entire, but the 

 lowest are sometimes again pinnatifid ; they are naked on both surfaces, and 

 the sori (spore masses) are covered by a rather broad involucre of a parchment- 

 like texture. — Hooker, SjJecies Filicum, ii., p. 89, t. 103b ; Filices Exotica?, 

 t. 90. Eaton, Ferns of North America, ii., t. 57. 



P. (Allosorus) ambigua — All-os-o'-rus ; am-big'-il-a (ambiguous), Baker. 



A greenhouse species, native of New Granada, with fronds oblong, simply 

 pinnate (once divided to the midrib), or bipinnate at the base, and borne on 

 wiry, erect, polished, dark chestnut-brown stalks Gin. to 9in. long. These 

 fronds are usually 4in. to 6in. long, 2in. to oin. broad, and furnished with 

 narrow leaflets ljin. long and of a somewhat leathery texture, with their 

 margin incurved. The brown, continuous involucre, of a papery texture, is 

 mapped out into a series of roundish depressions, the two opposite edges 

 interlacing by a marginal fringe, and sometimes concealing the dark, polished 

 midrib. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 147. 



P. (Allosorus) andromedasfolia — All-os-o'-rus ■ an-drom'-ed-as-foF-i-a 

 (Andromeda-leaved), Fee. 

 A comparatively strong-growing, greenhouse species, native of California, 

 and extending southward along the Andes of Chili, also of Cape Colony. Its 



