DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 167 
side, which is often bifid or trifid, and which has no cor- 
responding pinnule on the lower side. The pinnules or lobes 
are one to two lines long, and a half line or less broad, with 
the sori marginal or intramarginal along its upper edge. 
Lower pinnae gradually reduced to half the size of middle ones. 
A. brachypteron Kze differs only in being smaller, and is 
merged in Dregeanum by Kuhn, while Baker ( Annals of 
Botany , Aug. 1891) now says that “A. brachypteron and 
Dregeanum Kze are dareoid forms of A. Sander soni Hk.” 
If these can be connected, I do not see why A. auriculatum 
(Thun.) Kuhn should not be held to belong to the same group 
of forms, under one broken species, but meantime I look on 
the three latter as distinct. 
A. Dregeanum. Kze, Linn. 10, 517, 1836; Suppl. to Schk. Fit. tab. 27; 
Pappe and Rawson, 22 ; Kuhn, Fit. Afr. 101 ; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. 
Fit. 221; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr., 1st ed., 156 ; C. Chr. Index , 109. 
A. brachypteron. (?Kze, Linn. 23, 232); Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fit. 221 ; 
Wood, Natal Fer?is, 23; Lady Barkly’s List, No. 85 ; Wood, Hand- 
book of the Flora of Natal, 171. (In C. Chr. Index Filicum Suppl. 
1906 — 1912, A. brachypteron Kze, Linn. 23, 232, 1850; Hieron. 
Deutsche Zentralafr. Exp. 2, 8 (1910) is restored, as from tropical 
Africa only. Baker (Syn. Fil. 221) gives distribution as Madagascar, 
Natal, Angola, and Guinea Coast.) 
Africa and African Islands ; growing in deep shady 
ravines. 
Kaff. — Omsamcaba (Drege); Port St John’s, 1200 ft (Flanagan, 2472). 
Natal. — Abundant at Umpumulo, 2000 to 3000 feet (Buch.) ; Inanda, 
Maritzburg, and midland districts ; Buccleuch (W. Leighton). 
Rhodesia. — Umtali (Darling). 
79. ASPLENIUM AURICULATUM (Thbg) Kuhn. 
Plate 68. Nat. size. 
Crown erect, tufted. Frond herbaceous, glabrous, widely 
lanceolate, one to two feet long, three to six inches broad, 
with a green, herbaceous, flattened, glabrous rachis, and a 
naked, channelled stipe, six inches long. Frond proliferous 
below the terminal pinnule. Pinnae twenty to thirty pairs, 
one and a half to two and a half inches long, one-half to 
three-quarter inch broad at the base, and tapering to a rather 
