Ferns of British India and Ceylon. 91 
4. Cheilanthes fragilis. {Hook.) Caudex none except the 
copious tufted wiry fibres, fi-om which the stipes arise in tufts ; main 
rachis and shghtly scaly stipes (3-5 inches long) clothed with a 
greyish glandulose tomentum ; fronds of an opaque brownish-green 
colour, submembranaceous, 8-15 inches long, erect, rather stiff but 
fragile, oblong-lanceolate, pinnate with the pinnae pinnatifid ; pinnse 
alternate distant, horizontal up to 2 inches long, pinnatifid nearly to 
the rachis (which is furnished with subulate scales) ; segments 
crenated ; lobes obtuse and partially 
ciliated at the margin ; veins pinnated, 
simple or forked j sori approximate 
roundish; involucres ciliated, formed 
of the slightly changed lobes of the 
margin. Hook. Fil. Exot. t. 96 ; 
Syn. Fil. p. 135. Bedd. F. B. I. 
t, 223. 
Perhaps only a form of No. 3. 
Moulmein, on limestone rocks. 
5. Cheilanthes varians. {Wall, 
under Pteris.) Root tufted ; stipes 4-6 
inches long, slender, ebeneous-glossy, 
plane and margined on the upper 
side, obsoletely setose - paleaceou^ ; 
fronds sub - membranaceous, glab- 
rous, about a span long, long-lanceo- cheilanthes varians. (^<2;//.) 
late, the pinnatifid apex acuminated, 
pinnated above, bipinnate below ; primary pinnae distant, spreading 
or a little curved upwards, sessile, superior ones lanceolate, 
acuminate sinuate -pinnatifid at their base, and somewhat auricled 
at the upper base, lower ones deltoid acuminate pinnate at their 
base, pinnatifid acuminated (caudate) in the upper half ; pinnules 
lanceolate acuminate or acute pinnatifid below, the lowest 
inferior pinnae the longest. Hook. Sp. FIL ii. /. 89 ; Syn. Fil. 
p. 136. Bedd. F S. I.t 189. 
