i8o 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
the base, alternate, linear, lanceolate, four to six lines broad, 
meeting at the base, except the lower ones, which are separate, 
and very much reduced. Fertile pinnae separate, linear, one 
to two lines broad and pointed ; indusium broad, torn, or 
fringed. Veins forked, often ending in transparent cells near 
the edge of the frond. This splendid fern generally grows in 
clumps of four or five crowns together, each with twelve to 
twenty fronds. The pinnae are about equal in breadth for 
three-fourths of their length, then gradually taper to a long 
narrow point, while at the lower end they widen out at the 
very base and are connected with the rachis all along, meeting 
the base of the next pinna. The narrow pinnae of the fertile 
frond are about six inches long, and curve gracefully outward. 
In the seedling plants the fronds are entire at first, and after- 
wards waved (Plate 76, fig. 2). Sometimes plants become 
fertile when only one foot high if dry grown, but the fertile 
frond is then a miniature of the ordinary, and not contracted 
as in B. inflexum. Young barren fronds are sometimes green, 
but often of a bright pink colour. 
A form occurs in which the barren fronds are distinctly 
bi-pinnate on the lower half, and wavy and crisped in the 
upper portion (Plate 76, fig. 3). This is Lomaria heterophylla 
Desv. ( Blechnum Schl.), but is not constant enough in its 
character to deserve a name, and Kunze uses the name L. 
heterophylla Desv. for the ordinary form of this species. Kunze 
also mentions L. hamata Klfi, a variety with sterile pinnae 
narrower, fertile, falcate. L. decipiens P. and R. seems to 
have been founded on young plants of L. attemiata Willd. 
Blechnum attenuatum (Sw.). Mett. Fit. Lips. 64, 1856; C. Chr. Ind. 1 5 1. 
Lomaria attenuata. Willd. Sp. PL 5, 290; Kze, Linnaea , 18, 1 1 6 ; 
Pappe and Rawson, 28; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fit. 176; Sim, Fer?is 
of S. Afr ., 1st ed., 118. 
Lomaria gigantea. Klfs. 
Blechnum giganteum. Schl. Adum. 36, tab. 20 and 22, fig. 1. 
Lomaria heterophylla (Desv. see above). Kunze, Linn. 10, 506; Pappe 
and Rawson, 27. 
Blechnuin onocleoides. Swartz. 
Onoclea attenuata. Swartz, Schr. Jour. 
Blechnum polypodioides. Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 92. 
Osmunda polypodioides. Sw. Prod. 127. 
