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viscid, and some of them evidently tipped with a minute globular
gland.
The frond is as long as the- stalk, or even longer ; is oblong-
ovate or ovate-lanceolate in outline ; bipinnate, or, in the larger
specimens, approaching tripinnate. The lower pinnæ are rather
distantly placed, opposite or alternate, oblong-ovate in shape, six
to nine lines long; the pinnules crenately incised; the lobules
with the ends recurved, and forming separate herbaceous involucres.
The upper pinnæ are gradually smaller and more closely
placed. As the sporangia ripen, the involucres are pushed back,
so that the lobes and segments are at length flattened out. The
hairiness of the frond is so abundant as to partially obscure the
divisions of the pinnæ. The texture is herbaceous, and the general
color a dull grayish-green.
This little fern bears considerable affinity to Cheilanthes
vestita (Swartz), which is well known from New York to Illinois
and Georgia, and has been collected as far west as Kansas. C.
Cooperæ has the same general appearance, and similar herbaceous
involucres, but is commonly of smaller size, and is very distinct
in the character of the pubescence, as the hairs of the Eastern
plant are never viscid and glandular. On first receiving it, I supposed
it might be a Northern form of C. pilosa, from the Andes of
Peru ; but, having .now obtained a specimen of that fern through
the kindness of Mr. Baker of the Kevv Gardens, it is evident
that the present is distinct in its smaller size, narrower pinnules,
and in some other respects. Both species differ from C. mstita
in bearing glanduliferous hairs.
Mrs. .Sarah P. Cooper and her husband, Ellwood Cooper,
Esq., of Santa Barbara, are both well known as taking great
interest in the development of California, especially in the direction
of education, agriculture, and natural history. Mrs. Cooper
has sent to the Eastern States fine collections of ferns, and also
of the marine algæ which the shores of California produce in
great abundance and in beautiful variety.
Plate II., Fig. I . — An entire plant of Cheilanthes Cooperæ, and above
it, to the right, a portion of a pinna enlarged, and one of the gland-tipped
hairs highly magnified.