THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
1 86 
88. Blechnum capense (Linn.) Schlecht. 
Plate 82. a Small barren frond, nat. size, b Fertile frond, nat. size. 
Rhizome procumbent, four to six inches long, two to 
three inches diameter, paleaceous, with short, broad, ovate 
pointed, dark scales. Frond simply pinnate, herbaceous, or 
thinly coriaceous, broadest at the base, one to two feet long, 
six to ten inches broad, with stipe twelve to eighteen inches 
long, which is very paleaceous below, and more or less scaly 
and channelled above, and on the rachis. Pinnae of barren 
frond five to eight lines broad, three to five inches long, 
pointed, entire, or minutely serrate, not tapering to the base, 
but suddenly rounded to a very short petiole, even the upper 
ones not adnate. They are set obliquely across the rachis so 
that the lower edge of each pinna overlaps the upper edge of 
the one below it, and are sometimes glabrous ; sometimes set 
with woolly shag on one or both surfaces, especially when 
young ; or sometimes they have ovate pointed, white scales 
along the mid-rib on the under surface only. Fertile pinnae 
four to five inches long, two to three lines broad, pointed, 
flat on the upper surface, and with a marginal line extending 
beyond the indusium, which is membranaceous and much torn, 
or with each piece fringed. Veins conspicuous. 
Sometimes the pinnae of the barren frond are auricled at 
the base, and Kunze mentions a variety in which the pinnae 
are cut toward the point. 
Blechnum capense (Linn.). Schl. Adum. 34, tab. 18 (1825); C. Chr. 
Index , 152. 
Lomaria procera Sprengel. Hk. and Bkr, Syji . Fil. 179; Sim, Ferns 
of S. Afr. 1st ed. 122. 
Osmunda capensis. Linn. Sp. 7760 (not Presl). 
Onoclea capensis. Thunb. Prod. 171; Flora Cap. 731. 
Lomai'ia capensis Willd. Kunze, Linnaea , 10, 505 ; Pappe and 
Rawson, 27. 
Tropics and southward; widely spread; often growing in 
full sunshine. 
West. — Below Table and Devil’s Mountains, Paradise, Paarlberg, 
etc.; Platte Klip, Capetown (Rogers, 3038); Knysna (T. H. Rex, 
823). 
