Abstract: The new genus Leptolepidium is a segregate form of the classical but much neg1ected genus Aleuritopteris Fee, from which the genus is distinguished by the herbaceous summer-green 1eayes only sparcely farinose or quite naked underneath, by broad, oblong-lanceolate, light-colored thin scales on the rhizome with denticulate or glandular-ciliate margin and longi-subulate apices, by continuous indusium with entire margin and by trilet globose-triangular spores with subreticulate ornamentation, as diagnosed above. Thus, the new genus as typified by Cheilanthes dalhousiae and its al1ies is very distinct from Aleuri-topteris (e. g. A. farinosa (Forsk.) Fee, Which it has hitherto been always associated by authors. A sma1l genus of 5-6 species all found in China with a few ranging over to the neighbouring regions, such as Japan, Korea,Far Eastern Regions of USSR and Indo-Himalayas.

Key words: Leptolepidium -hsing-sinopterdaceae