98 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
long, six to eight inches broad, with a slightly villose rachis, 
and a brownish, villose or nearly glabrous stipe twelve to 
fifteen inches long. Pinnae sessile or shortly stalked, three 
to five inches long, one-half to three-quarter inch broad, 
lanceolate, pointed, with the margin cut one to two lines 
deep into roundish obliquely pointed lobes. Lower pinnae 
as large as, or larger than, those above; upper pinnae more 
closely placed, and slightly reduced, but at the point of the 
frond the pinnae are suddenly reduced to a pinnatifid terminal 
lobe. Veins pinnate, veinlets not forked, but several pairs of 
veinlets from neighbouring pinnules unite below the sinus, 
and the abundant sori are situated on the veins near where 
they meet, or in the lobes near the margin. Indusium small, 
fugacious. 
Var. PROPINQUUM R. Br. (var. hirsuta Mett.) differs from 
the type in having rachis and underside villose or hairy, and 
is recorded from Zambesi northward, but all our specimens 
are very slightly villose, or almost glabrous, except those 
from Swynnerton. 
Buchanan finds N. Plantianum P. and R., from specimens 
in the Rawson Herb., to be this, though maintained as a 
species by Kuhn. It is not mentioned in Syn. Fil . , and 
Christensen places it as doubtful. 
Dryopteris gojigy lodes (Schkuhr). O. Ktze, Rev. Gen. PL 2, 81 1. 1891. 
Nephrodimn unitum R. Br. Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 289 (not Seiber) ; 
Sim, Ferns of S. Africa , 1st ed., 179. 
Aspidium unitum Mett. Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 143. 
Aspidium Ecklonii. Kze, Linnaea , 10, 546. 
Nephrodimn Ecklonianum. Pappe and Rawson, 14. 
Nephrodimn Plantianum. Pappe and Rawson, 14; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 
139 (Buchanan, see above). 
Tropics of America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and African 
Islands; growing in exposed swamps, or by streams; local 
and rather rare in Cape Colony, often along with N. thelypteris 
Desv. and like it taking possession of the swamp. 
West. — Hot springs at Brand Valley, Worcester (Rawson), Knysna. 
East. — Uitenhage (Holland) ; Zwaartkops River (Eck.); Van Staaden’s 
River (Browning, Bolus, 1709); Kowie ; Despatch, Port Elizabeth 
(Mrs T. V. Patterson, 952). 
