DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
163 
almost naked, and evidently belongs to A. cuneatum. Found 
by Lady Barkly at Knysna, and labelled by her Asplenium 
dimidiatum Swartz. 
76. Asplenium praemorsum Sw. 
Plate 65. Nat. size. 
Rhizome procumbent on the surface, three to six inches 
long, densely set with longish, dark brown, linear, shining 
scales. Frond two-pinnate, coriaceous, ovate-lanceolate, two 
to four inches broad, one to one and a half feet long, with 
about twelve pairs of sub-opposite or alternate pinnae, and a 
stipe of six inches. Pinnae deltoid, pointed, shortly stalked, 
cut nearly or quite to the rachis into four to six cuneate 
pinnules; the lower distinct and flabellate or trifid, the others 
oblong pointed, and slightly confluent ; all with the upper 
margin sharply toothed, and tapering to a point. Sori two 
to three lines long, flabellate or central in the pinnules, and 
in two lines close to, and nearly parallel with the mid-rib in 
the upper part of the pinnae, facing inward. Stipe and rachis 
nearly black, abundantly set with rusty brown, fibrillose scales, 
which increase in size downward. Pinnae also set more or 
less thickly on both sides with scattered brown woolly scales. 
A. praemorsum. Sw. Prod. 130, 1788; Kze, Li?maea , 10, 519; Pappe 
and Rawson, 19; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. in; C. Chr. Index , 127. 
A. furcatum. Thunb. Prod. 172; FI. Cap. 735; Schl. Adum. 30; Hk. 
and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 214; Sim, Ferns of South Africa , 1st ed., 152. 
A. praemorsum (including both forms) grows through most 
of the tropics. Here, var. tripinnatum is the more common 
plant, growing abundantly in forest districts, and some of 
the localities quoted below may belong to that form. The 
less divided form grows on exposed rocks, and though very 
different in the extremes they cannot be separated, as every 
intermediate gradation between the two occurs. A minute, 
simply pinnate, scaly form, three to four inches high, grows 
on a rock near Bollasi, King William’s Town. 
West. — Ceres (Dr H. H. W. Pearson, 3500); Table Mountain, Ronde- 
bosch (Bergius); Wellington (M. Knobel, 966); Paarlberg (Kunze); 
George, 900 ft (R. Schl. 2364). 
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