28 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
48. Davallia chaerophylloides (Poir.) Steud. 
Plate 37. Nat. size, b Part of pinnule, magnified. 
Rhizome very stout, woody, and set with most abundant 
linear, almost hair-like rusty brown scales. Frond deltoid, 
three-pinnate, four to twelve inches long, three to nine inches 
broad, on a firm wiry naked yellowish stalk six inches long, 
channelled along the front, and joined to the rhizome. Rachis 
and rachis of pinnae resembling the stalk, slightly winged only 
toward the point. Pinnae alternate, stalked, deltoid, the lower 
four to six inches long, two to four inches broad at the base, 
others smaller upward. Secondary pinnae stalked, alternate, 
deltoid, and having five to seven pairs of alternate, shortly 
stalked, ovate, pinnules, which are cut to, or near to the 
mid-rib, into cuneate five to seven-lobed segments, each 
bearing one or more sori at the apex. Frond glabrous, sub- 
coriaceous, and firm. Involucre pouch-like, leathery, brown, 
open only at the top, rather longer than wide, terminal on the 
segments, and surmounted on each side by a point of lamina. 
Capsules on stalks from the bottom of the involucre. A 
specimen in Albany Museum is eighteen inches broad and 
eighteen inches long without stipe, finely cut, and rather 
sparse. 
Kuhn gives this as D. denticulata Mett. {D. elegans Sw.) 
var. intermedia Mett., and McKen’s D. elegans is said by 
Buchanan to be the same thing, while Lady Barkly calls it 
a variety, but gives no characters, and McKen’s description is 
from Syn. Fil. and not from his own plant. 
D. chaerophylloides (Poir.). Steud. Nom. 2, 146, 1824; C. Chr. 
Index , 208. 
D. nitidula. Kunze, Linnaea , 10, 545; Pappe and Rawson, 24; Hk. 
and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 97 ; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr ., 1st ed., 62. 
D. denticulata Mett., var. intermedia Mett. Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 158. 
Trichomanes chaerophylloides Poir. Enc. 8, 80, 1808. 
Found on trunks of trees, and in crevices in sandstone 
rock, etc., in sub-tropical South Africa and Angola only. 
Rock-grown specimens are often only a few inches high. 
Kaffraria. — St John’s River (Sir H. Barkly) ; Pondoland (Drege) ; 
Egossa, E. Pondoland (T. R. Sim). 
