DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
93 
without indusium, or almost so, even when young ; and 
Schlechtendal founded thereon his Poiypodium Bergianum 
(. Adum ., p. 20, tab. 9), in which he was followed by Kunze, 
and by Pappe and Rawson; though Kunze remarks that this 
and his N. patens grow in company. 
Though Schlechtendal describes and figures his plant as 
having no indusium, Nephrodium Bergianum Baker, which 
has generally an indusium, is named from it, with Poiypodium 
Schl. as synonym ; while the plant without indusium is placed 
under P. obtusilobum Desv. Buchanan, on what he calls a 
common plant, remarks — “ In the last edition of Syn. Fil. y 
P. obtusilobum Desv. is retained as a Natal species, and 
evidently with reason, for the involucre even when visible 
(which is seldom) is strictly rudimentary, and the sori as a 
whole show all the irregularity in shape and size of other 
species of Phegopteris.” 
Kuhn confines P. obtusilobum Desv. ( Aspid ’. Desvauxii 
Mett.) to Madagascar, and rejects N. conterminum from the 
African continent; and I have seen no reason why either 
should be credited to South Africa. 
This cannot be regarded even as a permanent variety of 
D. Bergiana Bkr., as sori with and without indusia occur on 
the same frond, and the same thing happens sometimes with 
D. mollis. Christensen maintains Dryopteris obtusiloba (Desv.) 
C. Chr. from Trop. Africa, Madagascar, and Mascarenes, but 
not from South Africa.) 
17. Dryopteris Bergiana (Schlecht.) O. Ktze. 
Plate 10. Nat. size, b Fertile pinnae, c Sorus, enlarged. 
Crown procumbent or sub-erect, or sometimes elongated 
into a stout rhizome of several inches; slightly scaly. Frond 
lanceolate, one to five feet long, six to fifteen inches broad, 
thinly herbaceous, minutely villose, or sometimes nearly 
glabrous, with a villose rachis, and a round, green, villose 
stipe six to twelve inches long. Frond widest at the middle, 
and tapering gradually to both ends. Pinnae lanceolate, cut 
almost to the rachis, so that veinlets from neighbouring 
pinnules cannot meet. Pinnules oblong and rounded, or 
