154 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
lobe on the upper side larger and sub-flabellate. Sori two to 
three lines long, almost contiguous, in two lines parallel to the 
rachis, and quite close to it, or slightly oblique. 
A. serra Langs, and Fisch. Ic. Fil. 1810; C. Chr. Index , 132. 
A. serra Langs, and Fisch., var. Natalense. Baker, Syn. Fil. 485 ; 
Buchanan’s List, No. 62; Lady Barkly’s List, No. 71; Sim, Ferns 
of South Africa , 1st ed., 144. 
A. serra. Wood’s Natal Ferns , 22. 
A. serra is a South American species with the margin 
inciso-serrate, and this deeply cut variety is its South African 
representative. It occurs also on the Cameroon, Mts. 
Natal. — Under the drip of water in bush at southern terminus of 
Great Noodsberg only (Buchanan); in two ravines at Little Noods- 
berg and at Inanda (Wood). 
Rhodesia. — Chimanimani Mts, 6500 ft (Swynnerton, 851. “Common 
among the crags and forest, perhaps the commonest fern of the 
mountains”); near Umtali (B. H. Holland). 
70. Asplenium adiantoides (Linn.) C. Chr. 
Baker’s description in Synopsis Filicum , under the name 
Aspl. falcatum Lam., is : 
“ St. tufted, 6 — 9 in. long, firm, erect, greyish, nearly naked ; frond 
6 — 18 in. long, 4 — 6 in. broad, with 6 — 20 stalked, nearly horizontal 
pinnae on each side, which are 2 — 3 in. long, ^ — 1 in. broad, the point 
acuminated, the edges lobed often one-third of the way down, and the 
lobes sharply toothed, the two sides unequal, and the lower one at 
the base obliquely truncate ; texture coriaceous ; rachis naked or slightly 
fibrillose ; veins very oblique ; sori in long irregular lines reaching nearly 
to the edge. Hk. Sp. 3, p. 160. 
Hab. Polynesian Islands, Australia, N. Zealand, Malaccas, Ceylon, 
Indian Peninsula, Mascarene Isles, Zambesi-land.” 
This species, which Christensen ( Index , 99) places in A. 
adiantoides , is not known to me. The original name was 
Trichomanes adiantoides Linn. 
71. Asplenium gemmiferum Schr. 
Plate 57. Fig. 1. Frond much reduced, b Pinna, nat. size. 
Varieties on Plates 58 and 59. 
Crown erect, paleaceous, with long, narrow, laciniated, 
black scales. Frond thick, sub-coriaceous, simply pinnate, 
