tab. lxxxi. 
Cheilanthes Kirk r i, Ilook. 
Caudice ascendente radiculoso crasso, stipitibus spithamasis et 
ultra caispitosis rigidis atro-purpureo-ebeneis nitidis inferne 
subulato-squamosis, frondibus 4-pollicaribus conaceis opacis 
cordiformibus profundissime tripartitis 5-lobo-palmatis, di- 
visionibus primariis infimis semitriangularibus intermedia 
triano-ulari omnibus bipinnatifidis laciniis ultimis oblongo- 
lanceolatis acutiusculis sinubus acutis, sons copiosis unifor- 
mibus, involucris subrotundis reniformibusve pallide fuscis 
venas furcatas termiuantibus, costis subtus atenimis nitidis. 
Jd-VB. Moramballa ^Mountain. Zambesi, elev. 3000-3o00 feet. 
Di\ Kirk in Dr. Livingstone's Zambesi Expedition, Dec. 
1858. 
This very interesting plant lias so entirely the habit and 
general structure of the well known Eteris, or P tUe a as it is 
now by many called, geraniifolia, (see first Cent, of Kerns, 
Tab. 15), that, without fructification, I cannot point a single 
character by which the one can be distinguished from the 
other ; but the sori of our present plant, are everywhere, and 
upon all our specimens, so entirely these of Cheilanthes , that, so 
long as that genus retains a place in our system, this plant 
must be referred to it. It is true we have had occasion to 
remark of several species of Cheilanthes, such a degree of 
confluence in the sori as to render it doubtful whether they 
should belong to one genus or the other, but here we have in 
the sori of Pellea geraniifolia and of Cheilanthes Kirkii the 
extremes of the two kinds of fructification, uniformly distinct 
in the one, and quite continuous in the other. 
Tab. LXXXI. Plant of Cheilanthes Kirkii, Hook. ; natu- 
ral size. Fig. 1. Fertile segment of a frond ; magnified-, f. 
2. Portion of a segment with sori, and showing the venation ; 
more magnified. 
* 
Cent. 2. t. 81. 
