Cheilanthes. 
5 1 
CHEILANTHES. 
£ have here a genus of ferns comprising about sixty or seventy species, for the 
most part natives of dry rocky places in tropical regions, but extending 
into temperate countries, three species being European and four or more 
natives of the United States. They are for the most part small ferns, but 
present a very considerable variation in size and form ; the European re- 
presentatives of the genus are, as we shall see, small plants, but many have 
fronds a foot or a foot and a half in length. The genus is characterised 
by having the sporangia borne on the thickened ends of free veinlets, bearing 
small roundish sori close to the margin of the frond : they are covered 
by a usually whitish and membranous indusium, which is formed of the 
reflexed margin of the frond. It is to this peculiarity that the name Cheilanthes (which 
is formed of two Greek words — ^etXo?, a lip, and avdos, a flower) alludes ; and the name Lip-fern 
is sometimes given as an English equivalent for the genus. The more or less compound fronds 
are often densely hairy or chaffy, with dark glossy stipites ; though to this rule there are 
exceptions — as, for instance, in C. multifida, a native of Africa and Java, the fronds of which are 
nearly smooth, and triangular or somewhat deltoid in outline. The genus can hardly be con- 
sidered well defined ; Sir W. J. Hooker says, “Vain is the attempt to form any definite character 
which shall decide its proper limits.” It is undoubtedly very near Pteris , scarcely differing from 
it in the greater distinctness of the sori. 
One of the most popular species is C. argentea , which is often met with in cultivation. Its 
specific name refers to the appearance of the under side of the frond, which is covered with a 
white flour-like powder, as is the case with some species of Gyninogramma ; the upper surface 
is of a bright dark green. C. farinosa is another species which is similarly silvered beneath ; 
the two species are closely allied, their most obvious difference being in size and geographical 
distribution. C. argentea usually — although Milde speaks of Mandschurian specimens more than 
a foot long — has fronds from two to four inches high, and is a native of Siberia, China, Japan, 
the Malay Peninsula, and Khasia, from which last-named region we have a variety ( chrysophylla ) 
which is golden, not silvery, beneath. The fronds of C. farinosa are from half a foot to a foot 
and a half in length, and in cultivation have been known to occur as long as two feet ; this is 
of more southern distribution, beginning in the Himalayas and extending throughout tropical 
India, Malaya, Ceylon, Arabia, and Abyssinia, and found also in Central America, where it 
ascends, in Mexico, to 8,000 feet. This species varies very much in cultivation, as is shown by 
Mr. John Smith’s very fine range of specimens in the Herbarium of the British Museum. The 
author just mentioned did not look upon it as really distinct from C. argentea, and a note from 
him attached to a specimen in the Herbarium says: “Stunted, starved plants of C. farinosa 
assume the appearance of C. argentea ; and I have no doubt that living plants, or plants raised 
from genuine spores of C. argentea, could, under cultivation, be made to assume the appearance 
of C. farinosa. Difference in size appears to me the only specific difference between them — the 
first being small, not exceeding two to four inches in height, while the second sometimes attains 
the height of nearly two feet.” C. argentea was introduced to cultivation in England in 1823 
C. farinosa was first grown in this country at the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1827. 
