DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
143 
59. Asplenium lunulatum Sw. 
Plates 45 (fig. 2), 47, 48, 49. 
Crown erect, tufted, without scales. Fronds one-half to 
two feet long, three-quarters to three inches broad, herbaceous, 
glabrous, pinnate or two-pinnate, widest at the middle, tapering 
very gradually to each end, and often proliferous at the apex. 
Rachis green or brown, with a green margin, and not hairy. 
Pinnae about forty pairs, more or less one-sided, varying from 
entire to pinnate in different varieties. Sori numerous, oblong, 
oblique, in two rows. Veins pinnate, main vein near centre 
of the pinna. This is the most variable fern we have, and, as 
such, the most confusing. What we here regard as varieties 
have been made species by different authors, and each keeps 
true to its character, though its surrounding conditions be 
changed. Still though the extremes are very dissimilar, we 
find in the forest every intermediate grade from one form to 
another all through, and do not see how they can be satis- 
factorily separated ; indeed, we find difficulty in excluding 
A. varians Wall, from the same group. 
Included above are the following, which Pappe and Rawson 
give in a scattered fashion as species: A. lunulatum Sw A. 
erectum Bory, A. Zeyheri P. and R., A. lobatum P. and R., 
A. gracile P. and R. Kuhn gives the same species, using 
the same names, except A. gracile P. and R., which he calls 
A. Pappei Moore, and adds A. pulchrum Th. Buchanan and 
Wood admit only three species, A. lunulatum Sw., A. harpeodes 
Kze, and A. gracile P. and R. Hk. and Bkr in Syn. Fil. in- 
clude all under A. lunulatum Sw., mentioning A. harpeodes 
Kze, A. lobatum P. and R., and A. gracile P. and R. as forms, 
and Christensen keeps the group in A. lunulatum Sw. 
The synonymy of these forms, especially the cut forms, is 
very much mixed in herbaria, and A. varians Wall, is fre- 
quently confused with them. 
This species is widely distributed in one or other of its 
forms through the tropics, and we find the forms growing 
intermingled without any localisation, though Buchanan points 
out that in Natal A. lunulatum grows from the coast to 3000 
