88 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
seems to have been a mistake as it is not included by Bu- 
chanan, nor in Syn. Fil. ; while Lady Barkly assumes it 
to be IV. Burgessiana, and Christensen confines W. mollis to 
America. It may also possibly have been some cut form of 
Ceterach cordatum which occasionally approaches some of the 
Woodsias in appearance. 
Genus 6. Cystopteris Bernh. 
Small delicate ferns, having the sori covered by a scale- 
like indusium attached under the capsules on the lower side, 
and at first swollen, and turned hood-like over them, but 
afterwards burst at the point into several irregular lobes, and 
soon almost hid by the capsules. A small genus of 12 species 
belonging to the temperate zones, and represented in S. Africa 
by only one species. 
15. Cystopteris fragilis (Linn.) Bernh. 
Plate 8. Nat. size, b Pinnule, slightly enlarged, c Do., much 
enlarged, d Indusium, much enlarged. 
Crown tufted, or rhizome shortly creeping ; stalks very 
tender and fragile, green and shining, and with a few scales 
at the base only. Frond lanceolate, three-pinnatifid, six to 
twelve inches long, two to three inches broad, glabrous, shining 
green, herbaceous, and very tender. Pinnae shortly stalked, 
widest at the base, more or less united toward the point, but 
at the base having several pairs of oblong pinnules, which are 
again pinnately divided into toothed lobes, each bearing one 
or more sori near the middle of the veinlets, subtended on 
the lower side by the scale-like, irregularly-lobed indusium, 
which is connected to the receptacle under the capsules by 
its wide base. Rachis slightly winged in the upper half. 
Occasional specimens (as R. Schlechter’s 6638) get two feet 
long and six inches broad, and resemble in general appear- 
ance Asplenium filix-femina . The smaller size is more like 
Asplenium Zeyheri , but it is easily distinguished from both 
these by the shape of the indusium. This is known as the 
Bladder Fern, on account of the swollen and bladder-like 
appearance of the indusium in its younger stages. The 
