DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
241 
at the base, bearing a sorus one to three lines long, half line 
broad, forming a crescent-shaped hollow on the margin. 
Veins distinct, flabellate from the stem, afterwards forking, 
three to eight venules going to each lobe. 
Only known as African by some barren fronds received 
from Drakensberg by Rev. J. Buchanan “ gathered beside 
a spring.” Kuhn doubtfully gives Senegambia as another 
African locality. No further record has been received. 
A. retiiforme belongs to Madeira and Tenerife ; var. 
asarifolium to Mauritius and Bourbon, and var. crenatum 
to Madagascar. 
1 3 1. Adiantum caudatum Linn. 
Plate 1 1 8. Fig. 2. Nat. size. 
Crown tufted, frond simply pinnate on a short stipe, 
lanceolate, one inch broad, twelve to eighteen inches long, 
with the pinnae toward the base rather reduced in size, and 
gradually much reduced and more scattered toward the point 
of the rachis, which generally is prolonged into a leafless tail, 
producing a bud at its apex, from which a young plant is 
developed when it reaches the ground. Texture at first very 
delicate, afterwards firmly herbaceous ; colour light green. 
Stipe and rachis with abundant short soft brown hairs, 
especially at the base. Pinnae numerous, with a few scat- 
tered hairs on both sides, or at the margin only. Pinnae 
half inch long, quarter inch broad, shortly stalked, or sessile, 
one-sided, the lower edge entire, arching or straight, at a right 
angle from the rachis ; the point and upper side rounded to 
where it suddenly drops parallel with the rachis. The upper 
side is cut halfway down into three to five emarginate or 
crenate-rounded lobes, which, when fertile, bear the sori on a 
straight line on their points. Sori not sunk. A form with 
winged petioles and stipes is mentioned in Syn. Fil . , but is 
not recorded here. 
A. caudatum. Linn. Mant. 308, 1771; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 115 
Sim, Ferns of S. Afr. 1st ed. 69 ; C. Chr. Ind. 24. 
S. F. s. A. 
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