54 
European Ferns. 
above the rim of the pot in which it is planted. It well deserves to be more generally cultivated 
than is at present the case ; as, although many ferns are more strikingly graceful, and others 
have a more distinct character, it is in itself a pleasing object, and the fragrance of the fronds 
renders it a well-marked and interesting species. 
CHEILANTIIES HISPANIC A, Mett. 
This is a very rare fern — ^so rare, indeed, that it is but seldom represented, even in large 
herbaria — and hence our description of it must be borrowed from authors who have been more 
fortunate than ourselves in this respect. It is interesting as being one of the very few species 
which are exclusively European (a list — nine in number — of those of which the geographical 
distribution is thus limited will be found in our introduction, p. xiv.), and its range in Europe 
is far from extensive. It was originally discovered in Spain, in the province of Estremadura, 
by Schousboe, in 1798, and to this its specific name is due: since then it has been found on 
rocks on the banks of the river Mondego, near Coimbra, in Portugal, by the late Dr. Welwitsch ; 
and Milde refers to it, without any doubt, a fern found near Messina by Tineo, which was 
described by Todaro in 1866, and named by him C. Tincei , in compliment to its discoverer. 
C. Hispanica much resembles C. fragrans in habit, but is readily distinguished by the 
distinctly deltoid outline of the twice or thrice pinnate fronds. The smooth-tufted, wiry stems 
are of a dark chestnut-brown hue, and shining ; from two to three inches in length, and with 
a dense tuft of slender wiry hairs at the base, which are similar to the stem in colour. The 
fronds are of a coriaceous texture, from an inch to an inch and a half long, and about half as 
broad ; they are green and smooth above, but on their under side are densely clothed with 
jointed, glandular, cinnamon-coloured hairs : the pinnae are in opposite pairs, the lowest being 
the largest ; these are oblong, or again branched on the lower side. The sori on the fertile 
fronds are very numerous, covering almost the whole of the under surface. 
CHEILANTHES SZOVITSII, Fisch. & Meyer. 
Although not so uncommon as the preceding, this fern is by no means frequently met 
with; in Europe, indeed, its distribution is very limited, as it only occurs in Italy and Dalmatia ; 
but in the East and in Asia it- appears to be more frequent, as it has been found in Lycia, the 
Caucasus, and Mount Taurus, and also in Algeria. It has also been brought from Beloochistan 
and Tibet, ascending in the last-named district to seven or eight thousand feet. It was first 
described in 1838, and named in honour of Szovitz, who first brought it from the province of 
Karabagh, in Asia. 
This is an exceedingly beautiful species, and one which is at once readily distinguished — 
“ primo viso;” as Milde has it — from C. fragrans by the ferruginous wool with which the fronds 
are covered below. It is closely allied to C. lanuginosa , a North American species, from which 
indeed it only differs in having distinct scales mixed with the woolly clothing of the stipes and 
rachis. 
The fronds spring from a tufted roundish caudex, the crown of which is densely scaly. 
The stipes, which is about as long as the frond (the latter being from three to four, or even six 
inches in length, and about a third of that size in breadth), is wiry and somewhat shining, of 
a blackish purple hue, clothed, like the rachis, with spreading woolly hairs, with which slender 
scales are intermingled ; the scales are scarcely more conspicuous than the hairs, but larger 
