DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
199 
It seems to vary considerably ; one specimen in Herb. Gub. 
has frond eighteen inches long, and resembling P. viridis 
(Forsk) but with the indistinctly reticulated venation. 
Pellaea dura (Willd.). Baker, Jour, of Bot. 1880; C. Chr. Index , 480. 
Pellaea Burkeana. Bkr, Syn. Fil. 153; Sim, Ferns of S. A fr.. t 1 st ed. ,105. 
Pteris Burkeana. Hk. Sp. 2, 213, tab. 126 ft. 
Pteris dura. Willd. Sp. 5, 376, 1810; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 80. 
South Africa and African Islands ; not known south of 
Natal. It grows in crevices of wet rocks. 
Transvaal. — Magalisberg (Burke). 
Natal. — Not rare but not very common (Wood); Great Noodsberg, 
Inanda, Umpumulo (Buchanan). 
Rhodesia — Mazoe, 5000 ft (F. Eyles, 263); Salisbury (J. F. Darling); 
Umtali (Holland, Mrs Bennett); Borrowdale (H. M. Hole); a 
tasselled form at Salisbury (J. F. Darling). 
98. Pellaea auriculata (Thbg) Fee. 
Plate 89. Nat. size. B Pinna, enlarged. C Falcate pinna, nat. size. 
Crown tufted, paleaceous, with lanceolate rusty-brown 
scales, or sometimes almost without scales. Frond herba- 
ceous, lanceolate, simply pinnate, or sometimes two-pinnatifid, 
two to nine inches long, half to one inch broad, with a short 
brown-black soft naked or slightly scaly stipe, and a polished 
brown naked green-margined rachis. Pinnae about eighteen 
pairs, not regularly opposite, sessile or very shortly stalked, 
bluntly pointed, ovate or cordate-ovate, or sometimes with 
one or more lobes at the base, hastate, or cut nearly to the 
mid-rib; barren pinnae more rounded than others. Indusium 
nearly a line wide, similar in texture to the frond, crenate 
along its edge, and the margin of the frond is also crenate- 
wrinkled. The crenations on the indusium appear almost 
like the separate indusia of Cheilanthes, but are only vein 
wrinkles, and not distinct lobes. 
This species is very various in cutting, and seems to 
include both Adiantum auriculatum and Pteris confluens of 
Thunberg, unless the latter belong to P. lancifolia which 
is nearly related to this ; indeed, Schlechtendal’s fig. d on 
Tab. XXIII approaches P. lancifolia closely. The fronds 
