Descriptions of the Species. 
85 
divided, quite expanded, and not differing from the common 
form, except in size, and in being less hairy. 
Var. / 3 . contracta. Kze. 
Plate XXVIII. Fig. 1. Nat. size, b Part of pinnule, magnified. 
Frond more rigid and coriaceous, one to two inches broad, six 
to fifteen inches long, on a stipe three to six inches long, set with 
a tuft of long linear brown scales at the base. Pinnae cut as in 
typical C. hirta, but short, dense, curved upward, and with the 
pinnules crowded and erecto-patent, or upturned on each side of 
the rachis, and with the lobes and segments more or less curved 
backward, and having the margin much infolded. Stipe, rachis, 
and lamina very hairy, and with the involucre ciliated. 
C. hirta. Sw. Var. contracta, Kze. Linnoea, 10,539 ; Pappe and 
Rawson, 35. 
C. contracta. Mett. MSS.; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 70. 
This is as common as C. hirta, and takes its place on hard 
rocky exposed ground. The extremes look distinct, but another 
form, var. intermedia, Kze. (Myriopteris intermedia, Fee), has the 
long narrow compact fronds of contracta, together with the plain 
or only slightly reflexed pinnules of hirta ; and every intermediate 
stage occurs between that and both the others. 
Var. contracta extends as far north as Kuruman, Bechuana- 
land, and is one of the few ferns of the Karroo and Namaqualand. 
34 Cheilanthes parviloba. Sw. 
Plate XXIX. Large frond. Nat. size. b. Part of pinnule, enlarged. 
c capsule. Plate XXVIII. Fig. 2. Nat. size, b Pinnule, enlarged. 
Crown procumbent, or with a simple or tufted rhizome two to 
three inches long, set with brown scales. Frond threc-pinnatifid, 
six to eighteen inches long, one to five inches broad, lanceolate, 
with pinnae considerably reduced below, or sometimes ovate- 
lanceolate pointed, with the lower pinnae not much reduced. 
Pinnae twelve to twenty pairs, opposite below, alternate above, 
three-quarters to three inches long, one-half to three-quarter inch 
broad, linear lanceolate acuminate, with six to ten pairs of alternate 
