| GROUP IV | FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; |
22. HAIRY LIP FERN
Cheilanthes vesiita (C. lanosa)
Growing on rocks, Southern New York to Georgia. Six to fifteen inches high, with brown and shining stalks.
Fronds.—Oblong-lance-shaped, rough with rusty hairs, twice-pinnate; pinnæ rather distant, triangular-ovate, cut into oblong, more or less incised pinnules; fruit-dots roundish; indusium formed by the reflexed margins of the lobes which are pushed back by the matured sporangia.
Till a few years ago the most northern station for the Hairy Lip Fern was supposed to be within the limits of New York City. The plant was discovered, in 1866 or 1867, on Manhattan Island, near Fort Tryon, growing on rocks with an eastern exposure. If one should visit this station to-day he would find himself at 196th Street, in the city of New York, some two hundred and thirty-three yards west of the Kingsbridge road, and I fear there would be no trace of this to us rare fern.
Since then the plant has been discovered close to the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie.
Its narrowly oblong, dull-green fronds, more or less covered with red-brown hairs, which give it a somewhat rusty appearance, spring from the clefts and ledges of rocks.
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