THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
158 
Lady Barkly adds that only one plant was found, and 
further search has proved vain. 
73. Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Linn. 
Plate 46. Fig. 2. Small frond, nat. size, b Pinnule of 
var. obtusum . 
Crown procumbent, short, slightly branched, glabrous, or 
slightly paleaceous, thickened by the enlarged basis of de- 
cayed fronds. Fronds deltoid, coriaceous, glabrous, two to 
three-pinnate, varying from three inches long and two broad 
to nine inches long and six broad, with numerous, alternate, 
or sub-opposite pinnae, and a dark, naked, furrowed stipe, one 
to six inches long, swollen into a fleshy base below. Lower 
pinnae largest, deltoid, stalked, one to three inches long, one 
to one and a half inches broad ; in large fronds two-pinnatifid, 
with three to four pairs of distant, stalked, deltoid, pinnatifid, 
toothed pinnules, one inch long, half inch broad; in small 
fronds, only the lower pinnules separate, roundly ovate, lobed 
and toothed, with upper pinnules close, rounded, confluent, and 
upper pinnae also confluent. Pinnae with a broad point, and 
rounded at the apex; lobes and pinnules broadly rounded, all 
sharply toothed, but with the teeth short and not divergent. 
Sori abundant, one to one and a half lines long, in two rows 
in each lobe or pinnule, slightly oblique, and reaching halfway 
from the centre to the edge, afterwards confluent in one long 
mass of capsules. 
A. adiantum-nigrum Linn. Schl. Adum. 31, tab. 17; Pappe and 
Rawson, 21 ; Moore’s Index , 109 ; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. FiL 214 ; 
Kuhn, FiL Afr. 95; Sim, Ferns of South Africa , 1st ed. 148; 
C. Chr. Index , 99. 
A. tabular e. Schrad. Gott. Gel. Anz. 1818, 916. 
A. argutum.. Kaulf. Enum. 176. 
Temperate Europe, Asia, Africa, and African Islands. In 
South Africa, local and not common ; growing on rocky 
banks. 
West. —Table Mountain, Grootvader’s Bosch (Rawson); Devil’s 
Mountain, Dutoitskloof (Kunze); Genadendal, 1000 ft (R. Schl. 
9865); Rietfontein Poort, 120 ft (R. Schl. 9701); Houtsbay, 400 ft 
(R. Schl. 1219) ; Sneeuwkop, above Bowesdorp (Prof. Pearson, 5838). 
