The parsley fern is the typical species of the genus Cryptogramma.  The indusium is formed of the altered margin of the pinnule, at first reflexed to the midrib, giving it a pod-like appearance, but at length opening out flat and exposing the sporangia.  Clute, speaking of this fern as “the rock brake,” calls it a border species, as its home is in the far north—­Arctic America to Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Colorado and California.

4.  LIP FERNS. Cheilanthes

Mostly small southern ferns growing on rocks, pubescent or tomentose with much divided leaves.  Sori at the end of the veins at first small and roundish, but afterwards more or less confluent.  The indusium whitish and sometimes herbaceous, formed of the reflexed margin of the lobes or of the whole pinnule.  Veins free, but often obscure.  Most of the ferns of this genus grow in dry, exposed situations, where rain is sometimes absent for weeks and months.  For this reason they protect themselves by a covering of hairs, scales or wool, which hinders the evaporation of water from the plant by holding a layer of more or less saturated air near the surface of the frond. (In Greek the word means lip flower, alluding to the lip-like indusia.)

(1) ALABAMA LIP FERN. Cheilanthes alabamensis

Fronds smooth, two to ten inches long, lanceolate, bipinnate.  Pinnae numerous, oblong-lanceolate, the lower usually smaller than those above.  Pinnules triangular-oblong, mostly acute, often auricular or lobed at the base.  Indusia pale, membranous and continuous except between the lobes.  Stipes black, slender and tomentose at the base.

[Illustration:  Alabama Lip Fern. Cheilanthes alabamensis (From Waters’s “Ferns,” Henry Holt & Co.)]

This species of lip fern may be distinguished from all the others within our limits by its smooth pinnae.  On rocks—­mountains of Virginia to Kentucky, and Alabama, and westward to Arizona.

(2) HAIRY LIP FERN. Cheilanthes lanosa, C. vestita

[Illustration:  Hairy Lip Fern]

Fronds twice pinnate, lanceolate with oblong, pinnatifid pinnules; seven to fifteen inches tall, slender and rough with rusty, jointed hairs.  Pinnae triangular-ovate, usually distant, the ends of the rounded lobes reflexed and forming separate involucres which are pushed back by the ripening sporangia.

This species like the other lip ferns is fond of rocks, springing from clefts and ledges.  While hairy it is much less tomentose than the two following species.  Unlike most of the rock-loving ferns this species is not partial to limestone, but grows on other rocks as well.  It has been found as far north as New Haven, Conn., also near New York, and in New Jersey, Georgia, and westward to Wyoming and southward.

(3) WOOLLY LIP FERN. Cheilanthes tomentosa

Fronds eight to eighteen inches long, lanceolate-oblong, tripinnate.  Pinnae and pinnules ovate-oblong, densely woolly especially beneath, with slender, whitish, obscurely jointed hairs.  Of the ultimate segments the terminal one is twice as long as the others.  Pinnules distant, the reflexed, narrow margin forming a continuous, membranous indusium.  Stipe stout, dark brown, densely woolly.