Small rock-loving ferns, mostly with pubescent, tomentose or scaly leaves, the blades uniform, 1-3-pinnate, the divisions often minute and bead-like. Sori terminal upon the veins, marginal, roundish and distinct, or somewhat confluent, often obscured by the hairy or scaly covering. Indusia formed of the revolute or reflexed usually modified margins of the segments. [Greek, in allusion to the marginal sori.]

About 100 or more species, of temperate and tropical regions. Besides the following numerous other species occur in the southwestern and western United States and in Mexico. Type species: Chcilanthes micropteris Sw.

1. Cheilanthes Alabamensis (Buckl.) Kunze. Alabama Lip-Fern

Fig. 78

Pteris alabamensis Buckl. Amer. Journ. Sci. 45: 177- 1843.

C. alabamensis Kunze, Linnaea 20: 4. 1847.

Rootstock creeping, rather stout and short, clothed with very slender hair-like dark ferruginous scales. Stipes black, 3'-7' long, slender, wiry, villous at least towards the base with rusty hair-like scales; blades lanceolate, glabrous, 2'-10' long, 2-pinnate; pinnae numerous, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, very short-stalked, the lowest usually smaller than those above; pinnules oblong or triangular-oblong, mostly acute, often auriculate on the upper side at the base, or the larger ones on both sides and above more or less lobed; indusia pale, membranous, continuous or sometimes slightly interrupted by the incising of the pinnules.

On rocks, Virginia to Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Arizona. Aug.-Oct.

2. Cheilanthes Lanosa (Michx.) Watt. Hairy Lip-Fern

Fig. 79

Nephrodium lanosum Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 270. 1803.

Cheilanthes vestita Sw. Syn. Fil. 128. 1806.

C. lanosa Watt, Trimen's Journ. Bot. 12: 48. 1874.

Rootstock short, creeping, with pale rusty-brown scales. Stipes tufted, wiry, chestnut-brown, 2'-4' long, hirsute with rusty jointed hairs; blades herbaceous, oblong-lanceolate, 4'-9' long, l'-2' wide, gradually attenuate to the apex, 2-pinnate; pinnae somewhat distant, especially the lower ones, deltoid-ovate to ovate-oblong, more or less densely hirsute like the stipe and rachis and usually somewhat glandular; pinnules in several pairs, close or somewhat apart, oblong, deeply pinnatifid into close roundish or oblong lobes, the margins of these forming separate herbaceous indusia.

On rocks, Connecticut and southern New York to Georgia, west to Kansas and Texas. Ascends to 1900 ft. in North Carolina. July-Sept. Clothed Lip-fern.

Cheilanthes Feei Moore. Slender Lip-Fern

Fig. 80

Myriopteris gracilis Fee, Gen. Fil. 150. 1850-52. C. lanuginosa Nutt.; Hook. Sp. Fil. 2: 99. 1858. C. gracilis Mett. Abh. Senck. Nat. Gesell. 3: 80.

1859. Cheilanthes Feei Moore, Ind. Fil. xxxviii. 1857.

Rootstock short, covered with narrow brown scales lined with black. Stipes densely tufted, slender, about as long as the leaves, at first covered with woolly hairs, at length nearly glabrous; blades ovate-lanceolate, 2-5 long, 1'-2' wide, 2-3-pinnate, the upper surface slightly tomentose, the lower densely woolly with soft whitish-brown hairs; pinnae mostly oblong-ovate and contiguous, the lowermost deltoid-ovate and distant; pinnules pinnate or crenately pinnatifid into several pairs of crowded minute roundish segments, the reflexed margin forming an herbaceous indusium.

On rocks, Illinois and Minnesota to British Columbia, to Texas and New Mexico. July-Oct.

4. Cheilanthes Tomentosa Link. Woolly Lip-Fern

Fig. 81

Cheilanthes tomentosa Link, Hort. Berol. 2: 42. 1833. Rootstock stout, short, densely chaffy with rigid slender striped and concolorous bright brown scales. Stipes tufted, 4's' long, rather stout, densely brown-tomentose even when mature; blades oblong-lanceolate, 3-pinnate, 6'-18' long, densely tomentose, especially beneath, with brownish-white obscurely articulated hairs; pinnae and pinnules ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, the ultimate pinnules distinct, usually obovate, about 1/2" long, the terminal ones sometimes twice as large as the others, the reflexed margin forming a narrow continuous indusium.

On rocks, Virginia to Georgia, Texas, Arizona and Mexico. July-Oct. Webby Lip-fern.