"rarest, tallest and handsomest of the lip ferns."

Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky to Georgia, and west to Missouri, Texas
and Arizona.

(4) SLENDER LIP FERN

_Cheilánthes Féei, C. lanuginòsa_

Stipes densely tufted, slender, at first hairy, dark brown, shining. Fronds
three to eight inches long, ovate-lanceolate, with thickish, distinctly
articulated hairs, twice or thrice pinnate. Pinnæ ovate, the lowest
deltoid. Pinnules divided into minute, densely crowded segments, the
herbaceous margin recurved and forming an almost continuous indusium.

[Illustration: Slender Lip Fern]

The slender lip fern, known also as Fée's fern, is much the smallest of the
lip ferns, averaging, Clute tells us, "but two inches high." This is only
one-third as tall as the woolly lip fern and need not be mistaken for it.
The fronds form tangled mats difficult to unravel. It grows on dry rocks
and cliffs--Illinois and Minnesota to British Columbia, and south to Texas,
New Mexico and Arizona.

[Illustration: Pinnæ of Slender Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes Féei_ (From Waters's
"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]



5. CLOAK FERN. _Notholàena_