DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
229 
Throughout South Africa, extending to the Mascarenes. 
McLea’s No. 47 (Bolus, 17) from Pilgrim’s Rest, Transvaal, 
is three feet long, nine inches broad, much divided, quite ex- 
panded, and not differing from the common form, except in 
size, and in being less hairy. 
West. | — One of the most frequent and widely distributed ferns, 
East. I growing mostly in the bush or under stones in kloofs 
KafT. f from the coast to near the top of the mountains, and also 
Natal.) on kopjes in the dry Karroo districts, and in Namaqualand. 
Orange Free State. — Bethulie (T. R. Sim); Bloemfontein (Potts, 480); 
Rietfontein Hills, Parijs (Potts, 566); near Van Reenen (Dr Bews). 
Transvaal. — Houtbosch, 5000 feet (Schl. 4401); Schweizer-Reneke 
(Burtt-Davy, 1670); Elim (Schinz) ; Pilgrim’s Rest (McLea, 40; 
Bolus, 17); Lydenburg, Krugersdorp and Godwan River, Swazi- 
land (T. J. Jenkins, 1006, 914 and 910); Waterval-Boven (F. A. 
Rogers, 990) ; Ermelo, Heidelberg and Standerton (R. Leendertz, 
2959, 2665 and 4047); Barberton (Miss Williams, 793); Houtbosch- 
berg (W. Nelson, 464). 
Rhodesia. — Umtali (Mrs Bennett); Matopo Hills, 5000 feet (Miss 
Gibbs, 90; Eyles, 76); near Bulawayo, 4500 ft' (F. Eyles, 393). 
Var. CONTRACTA Kze. 
Plate hi. Fig. 1. Nat. size, b Part of pinnule, magnified. 
Frond more rigid and coriaceous, one to two inches broad, 
six to fifteen inches long, on a stipe three to six inches long, 
set with a tuft of long linear brown scales at the base. Pinnae 
cut as in typical C. hirta, but short, dense, curved upward, and 
with the pinnules crowded and erecto-patent, or upturned on 
each side of the rachis, and with the lobes and segments more 
or less curved backward, and having the margin much infolded. 
Stipe, rachis, and lamina very hairy, or sometimes red-tomen- 
tose below, and with the involucre ciliated. 
C. hirta Sw., var. contracta. Kze, Linnaea , io, 539; Pappe and Raw- 
son, 35 ; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr ., 1st ed., 85. 
C. contracta. Mett. MSS.; Kuhn, Fit. Afr. 70. 
This is as common as C. hirta, and takes its place on 
hard rocky exposed ground. The extremes look distinct, 
but another form, var. intermedia Kze (. Myfiopteris inter- 
media Fee), has the long narrow compact fronds of contracta , 
