Cheilanthes. 
55 
and subulate (or awl-shaped), and these are very characteristic of the species. The pinnate 
fronds are narrow-oblong, quite smooth on the upper surface, but densely covered below with 
a thick coat of a brown woolly covering ; the nearly sessile pinnae are in opposite pairs, the 
lowest being the smallest, and almost deltoid in shape. The pinnules are set closely together, 
“cut down to the rachis below into small roundish beaded segments;” the divisions are again 
divided into ovate ultimate divisions, the margins of which are turned over so as to cover the 
numerous marginal sori with a spurious indusium, fringed with light-brown hairs. Although 
so densely clothed with light-brown wool below, the fronds are nearly smooth above, their green 
hue standing out with great distinctness against the brown marginal fringe which is afforded 
by the long hairs of the under-surface. One of its names, C. fimbriata, no doubt refers to this 
fringed appearance. Sir W. J. Hooker describes a variety (/3. Stocksii) from Scinde and 
Afghanistan, in which the woolly covering is exceedingly dense and tawny, and “so copious 
and spreading as at first sight apparently to invest the whole frond.” 
CHEILANTHES ARGENTEA. 
