88 
BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
of about twenty articulations: Fee says there are vittate or 
knotted hairs growing among them. The spores are rather 
large, amber-colored, globose, and delicately trivittate. Accord- 
ing to Fee, when placed in water they burst and dissolve into 
excessively minute sporules. 
There can be no doubt that our plant is the Cheilanthes 
tomentosa of Link. Kunze, who knew Link’s plant perfectly 
well, referred the North Carolina specimens to it; and Dr. 
Mettenius, who succeeded to the care of the Leipzig garden, 
favored me with specimens which are precisely the same 
thing as the plant here described. But none of the Mexican 
collectors seem to have found the species, and it may be 
legitimately queried whether the commonly reported origin of 
Link’s specimens is the true one. The Cheilanthes tomentosa 
of the Species Filicum is partly this plant, but mainly the 
species next to be described. 
