174 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
83. Asplenium Mannii Hk. 
Plate 61. Fig. 3. Nat. size, c Sorus, enlarged. 
Crown erect, fibrillose ; fronds (including stipe) three 
inches long, three-quarter to one inch wide, softly coriaceous, 
glabrous, simply pinnate or the lower pinnae once or twice 
dichotomously forked ; rachis and pinnae very narrow, but 
the pinnae club-shaped above, with the sorus near the lower 
margin of that portion, the indusium opening to the other 
side, the sorus consequently being hardly marginal. A dis- 
tinct little fern, somewhat resembling small plants of A . 
bipinnatum , but with the club-shaped pinnules and more 
central sori. 
Tropical Africa and Madagascar. 
A. Mannii. Hk. 2, Cent. t. 60. 1861 ; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fit. 221; 
C. Chr. Ind. 120. 
Rhodesia. — Mt Pene,, 7000 ft (Swyn. 6015); Chipete Forest, 3800 ft 
(Swyn. 427). 
Portuguese East Africa. — Zambesiland (Dr Kirk). 
(Buchanan mentions (Revised List, p. 30) — “ A large 
Asplenium, apparently near to A. polypodioides , if not a 
variety of it,” as sent by Mr Ayres from Macamac gold- 
fields, Transvaal. 
A. polypodioides Mett. is a large, pinnate, East Indian 
fern, with a short tree-like stem, and belongs to the section 
Diplazium, in which the sori extend to both sides of the 
veins. Diplazium is not otherwise represented in South 
Africa, and Mr Baker writes that A. polypodioides is not 
known at Kew from this district, so having seen no speci- 
mens, I can only mention it here. A. polypodioides Sw. is 
our A. platy neuron, which is not a large fern.) 
Asplenium Marlothii Hieron. Engl. Jahrb. 46, 357, 1911; C. Chr. 
Index Fil. Suppl. 1906 — 1912, 12, from British Bechuanaland, is 
known to me only by name. It is closely allied to A. pumilum, Sw. 
See p. 353. 
Genus 20. Ceterach Lam. 
Sori linear, without true indusium, but hidden among 
closely imbricated brown chaffy scales. This small genus, 
in which four closely allied species are placed by Christen- 
sen, has been the subject of many changes, and in Synopsis 
