244 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
as occurring with other S. African ferns in the carroid Indian 
province of Rajputana. (See page 50.) 
133. Adiantum Oatesii Baker. 
Plate 120. Part of frond, nat. size. B Pinnule, enlarged. 
Frond twelve to eighteen inches long and wide, divided 
in a sub-palmate manner into several pinnate pinnae, four to 
six inches long, each bearing numerous lobed and one-sided 
pinnules like those of A. caudatum but larger. The whole 
plant is glabrous, and of thin texture. 
A. Oatesii. Baker in Oates, Matabeleland , Ed. 1, App. V. 369, 1881; 
C. Chr. hid. 30. 
South Africa only. (“Zambesi District, Ngamiland, Cro- 
codile River.” J. G. Baker in Miss Gibbs’ list.) 
Rhodesia. — Matabeleland (Oates); Lo Magundi (J. F. Darling); near 
Victoria Falls (Allen, 20; J. Sim; Rain forest, Miss Gibbs). 
134. Adiantum hispidulum Sw. 
Baker’s description (Syn. Fil. 126) is: 
“ St. 6 — 1 5 in. long, strong, erect, polished, dark chestnut-brown, 
scabrous ; frond dichotomous, with the main divisions flabellately 
branched; central pinnae 6 — 9 in. long, \ — 1 in. broad; pinnules § — 
| in. long, 2 — 4 lin. broad, dimidiate, sub-rhomboidal, rather broader 
on the side nearest the stem, the outer edge bluntly rounded or 
oblique; upper and outer margin finely toothed, lower ones slightly 
stalked; texture sub-coriaceous; rachises and both surfaces hispid; 
sori roundish, numerous, contiguous round the upper and outer edge. 
Hk. Sp. 2, p. 31; A. pubescens Schk. 
Hab. Asia: Neilgherries and Ceylon eastward to Fiji, southward to 
N.S. Wales and New Zealand; Africa: Bourbon, Mauritius, Zambesi- 
land, banks of Niger. Easily distinguished from the other species by its 
densely pubescent segments and rachises.” 
We have not yet had specimens of this, but on the 
strength of the above credit it to Rhodesia. It is a fairly 
hardy fern, not uncommon in cultivation. 
