Abstract:

 As a genus, Aleuritopteris was first founded by Fée upon Pteris farinosa Forsk.

in 1852.  The genus had been ever since, however, practically forgotten, because it did

not receive a general recognition among the fern students, who considered it either as

Cheilanthes (Baker. 1897, Diels, 1900, C. Christensen 1905), or placed it in Pellaea

(Hooker. 1858, Hope et Wright 1903).  Ching  (1941)  first reinstated the status of

Aleuritopteris and later followed by Copeland  (1947), Panigrahi  (1961,  1962.) and

Pichi-Sermolli (1975).  In recent years, however, some pteridologists (Nayar, 1962, K.

Iwatsuki and others) are still against it as a distinct genus.

     Our recent study of the rich material on hand has shown Aleuritopteris to be a

distinct genus, according to both the morphological characteristics and geographical dist-

ribution.  We further propose the possibly evolutionary relationships of Aleuritopteris

with other related genera of the Cheilanthoid ferns, as indicated by the above scheme.

     The genus is now represcented by a little more than 30 species, of which 25 are

known in China, among which 8 species and 3 varieties are diescribed for the first time.