DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
263 
149. Histiopteris INCISA (Thunb.) J. Sm. 
Plate 133. Part of frond, nat. size. 
Rhizome slender, widely creeping underground. Frond 
glabrous, glaucous, more or less deciduous, two to three pin- 
nate, one to three feet long, nine to eighteen inches broad, on 
a naked, herbaceous, glaucous stipe, six to twelve inches long. 
Pinnae opposite, lanceolate, sessile ; in young plants lobed or 
pinnatifid, but in mature plants cut into distinct, lanceolate, 
or ovate pinnules, which have a wide adnate base, and are 
often more or less irregularly lobed or pinnatifid below, or on 
lower pinnae usually again fully pinnate. Barren frond, and 
barren tips of fertile pinnules, slightly crenate, but not toothed. 
Texture thick, but brittle. Involucre continuous, narrow ; 
veins sometimes anastomosing freely, especially on the young 
plants ; often quite free in old fertile plants, and Burchell’s 
7240, as sent from Kew to Herb. Gub., has all the veins free. 
This species is easily recognised by its spreading rhizome, 
glaucous colour, and entire (i.e. not toothed) pinnules, but the 
fronds vary a good deal in cutting. 
Histiopteris incisa (Thbg). J. Smith, Hist. Fit. 295 (1875); C. Chr. 
Index , 352. 
Pteris incisa. Thunberg, Prod. 1 7 1 ; FI. Cap. 733; Schl. Adam. 44, 
tab. 25; Kze, Linnaea , 10, 44; Pappe and Rawson, 26; Kuhn, Fil. 
Afr. 82 ; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 172 ; Sim, Ferns of South Africa , 
1st ed. 1 12. 
Pteris vesper tilionis. Labill. 
Litobrochia incisa. Presl. 
Widely scattered in the tropics; growing in damp ground. 
West. — Hangklip (Drege); Campsbay (Ecklon) ; Table Mountain at 
Newlands, Wynberg, etc., Hottentot’s Holland, Swellendam (Hol- 
land); Zuurbraak, Swellendam (Burchell, 7240). 
East. — Tzitzikamma. 
Natal. — Noodsberg, Kranzkloof, Inanda (McKen); Umpumulo (Bu- 
chanan) ; Buccleuch (W. Leighton) ; Winter’s Kloof (T. R. Sim). 
Genus 37. Pteridium Gleditsch. 
Indusiurn sometimes double; veins free. This genus con- 
tains only the common Bracken, in our first edition included 
