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8 2 F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A .
Cheilanthes Moritsiana, K u n z e , in LiiiiiEea, xxiii., p. 307.— H o o k e r , Sp.
Fil., ii., p. 85, t. xdx., B .— F o u e n ie k , Pi. Mex., Crypt., p. 123.
Cheilanthes micromera. L in k , Hort. Berol, ii., p. 26 ; — Fil. Hort.
Berol., p. 64.
Lonchitis minima, ramosa, P l u m ie r , Fil. Amcr., p. 4 4 , t. 58 .
For additional synonymy see Synopsis Filicum, where also
may be found mention of several tropical varieties of this species.
H a s . — On ancient shell-heaps, Stratton Island, near the mouth of
the St. John's River, Florida, Mr. A. H. C u r t is s , April and August.
1S78. A few specimens of a form with sub-deltoid and nearly tripinnate
fronds were collected on the Survey of the Mexican Boundary,
the precise locality not known, and the species was also found many,
years ago on the calcareous rocks of the Hot Springs of Arkansas by
Dr. E n g e lm a h n (See Silliman’s Journal, July, 1848, p. 87). The range
extends through Mexico and the West Indies southwards to Venezuela
and Peru.
D e s c r i p t i o n . - The root-stock of this fern is seldom over
a line and a half in diameter, and is several inches long. It
is covered with very minute subulate ferruginous scales, and
bears somewhat scattered stalks. The stalks are erect, wiry,
nearly black ‘ in color, but not very highly polished. In the
several forms of the species they vary a good deal in pubescence,
being now nearly smooth, now rusty-pubescent along
the anterior side, and now almost hirsute on all sides. The
rachis varies similarly, but is usually more hirsute than the
stalk. The section shows a very strong exterior sheath of
dark tissue, and a central butterfly-shaped fibro-vascular bundle.
■ a i i
F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A . 8 3
The fronds of the Florida specimens are from five to
eight inches long, and from one to two and a half inches
wide. They are mostly lanceolate from a base but little
wider than the middle of the frond; but some of them show
a tendency toward the sub-deltoid form which is seen in the
specimens from the Mexican Boundary, and especially in the
var. Moritziana, which form occurs in the more tropical parts
of America. The texture is firmly chartaceous, or even subcoriaceous.
The surfaces are green, and more or less minutely
paleaceo-pubescent, at least when young. In Synopsis
Filicum both surfaces are said to be glabrous, but this is
rarely the case. The fronds are bipinnate, or in the larger
forms tripinnate. The pinnæ are rather numerous, oblong-
ovate in shape, or the lower ones deltoid-ovate, usually an
inch to an inch and a half long, and five to twelve lines
wide, and have a midrib, which is, at least in its lower part,
blackened and ferruginous-hirsute like the rachis.
The secondary pinnæ are ovate-oblong, usually obtuse,
broader and somewhat auricled on the upper side of the base,
excised on the lower, and vary from entire to pinnately
lobed or even parted. The margin is narrowly recurved to
form an involucre, but is scarcely changed in texture. The
involucre is nearly continuous in the strictly bipinnate forms,
but is more and more interrupted in more compound forms,
so that it presents much variation in this respect. The
spores are nearly globose.
This species is extremely variable in the form and comt
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