DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
105 
of Europe ; but in my first edition I adopted that name 
following Mr Baker, who finds intermediate and connecting 
forms in other countries. It is included by Buchanan, McKen, 
and Wood in N. inaequale SchL; and Lady Barkly’s specimens 
of N. inaequale all belong to this species. 
Schlechtendal’s description and figure leave no room for 
doubt that he also included both, or at least this, in his A. 
inaequale ; while Kunze makes this A. inaequale Schl., and our 
next species, A. inaequale Schl., var. montanum. It appears 
also to be Pappe and Rawson’s Lastrea pentagona ; while 
Kuhn makes it a separate species as Aspidium elongatum Sw., 
and also maintains Lastrea pentagona Moore (as from Natal). 
Christensen connects the latter with D. inaequalis. 
As mentioned above, I find no relationship between this 
plant and D. filix-mas, and in any grouping would place 
this with other decompound species in the Spinulosum group. 
I have consequently no hesitation in omitting D. filix-mas 
from South Africa, and restoring the name now used for our 
species. The same plant has been described and illustrated 
from specimens from Van Reenen, Natal, as N. Pentheri 
Krass. in “ Plantae Pentherianae ” ( Annalen des K. und K. 
N aturhistorischen Hof museums, Band 15, Heft 1. Vienna 
1900). 
Dryopteris elongata (Sw.). Sim, Ferns of South Africa , 2nd ed., 104. 
Nephrodium filix-mas Rich. y elongatum. Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 
272 ; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr., 1st ed., 181. 
Aspidium elongatum Sw. Schrad .Jour. 1800, 11. 38 (1801); Kuhn, 
Fil. Afr. 132. 
Nephrodmm elongatum. Hk. and Gr. Icon. 234, 1831. 
Dryopteris filix-mas (L.) Schott, var. elongatum. C. Chr. Index, 264. 
Lastrea pentagona. P. and R. 13; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 139. 
Aspidium inaequale. Schl. Adum. 23 (in part) ; Kunze, Linnaea, 
10, 549. 
Distributed over most of Africa and African Islands ; 
usually the most common fern in forest localities. 
West. — Table Mountain (Guthrie, Bolus, 1707); Cape (Pappe). 
East. — Fern Kloof, Boschberg (MacOwan); Voorman’s Bosch, Van 
Staaden’s River (Browning) ; Compassberg, 8200 feet alt. (Bolus, 
1973); Bedford (Miss Cook). 
