TAB. II. 
Onychium melanolepis, Dene . 
Caudice brevi subrepente squamis rigidis appressis nigris pa- 
leaceo, stipitibus csespitosis 3-6 uncialibus gracilibus rachi- 
busque subflexuosis canaliculatis glabris nitide stramineis 
(in sicco), fronde membranacea 3-6-unciali costata glabra 
pallide virente ovata triplicato-pinnatisecta, laciniis sterili- 
bus angusto-cuneatis 3-5 fidis incisis, laciniis sublinearibus 
acutis, fertilibus oblongis cuspidatis, involucris pallidis mem- 
branaceis linearibus longitudine fere laciniarum, apicibus 
sterilibus. 
Onychium melanolepis, Dene . PL de V Arabic Heur. Archiv. 
du Mus. 2 p. 189. Kze. in Schkuhr, Fil. SuppL 2. p. 9. 
t. 104. f. 2. Hook . Gen. et Sp. Fil. 2. p. 124. 
Cheilanthes leptophylla, Br. in Saifs Abyss . App. iv. p. lxv., 
( name only.) 
Allosorus cuspidatus, Jaub. et Spach . Illustr. PI. Or. 3. p. 1. 
t. 201. 
IIab. Abyssinia, Salt , H. Schimper } n, 1672. South Persia, 
rock of Mount Pire-zend, between Shiraz and Kazeroum, 
Aucher-Eloi , n. 5488. Caves in the Island of Kareh, Per- 
sian Gulph, and at Dalechy, Kotschy } n. 10 and 198. 
My first knowledge of this plant was from the specimens 
of Aucher-Eloi in my possession. On finding it to be 
identical with Mr. Brown’s Cheilanthes leptophylla of Salt’s 
plants in the Banksian Herbarium, I was anxious to figure 
it ; which done, and not till then, I discovered that it was, 
under other names, represented in Kunze supplement to 
Schkuhr’s Filices, as well as in the fine work of Jaubert and 
Spach on Oriental plants. It is a Fern of very delicate tex- 
ture, like some slender specimens of Gymnograrnme leptophylla 3 
and it appears to me that Decaisne and Kunze have correctly 
referred it to Onychium ; the specific name is derived from 
the black scales on the caudex, which is wanting in the spe- 
cimen from which our drawing was made. 
Fig. 1. Sterile portion of a frond, f. 2. Fertile portion of 
ditto, seen from beneath : — magnified. 
