DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 275 
159. Polypodium lineare Thunb. 
Plate 139. Nat size. Plate 140. Var. Schraderi. 
Rhizome several inches long, slender, woody, glaucous, 
paleaceous, with dark or brown shining membranaceous 
pointed scales. Fronds herbaceous, lanceolate, entire, four 
to twelve inches long, three-quarters to one and a half inches 
broad at the middle, and tapering to a point, and also tapering 
slowly to the short stipe. Fronds quite naked, or with a few 
scales below on the mid-rib when young. Sori large, sunk, 
mostly in the upper part of the frond, in a row on each side 
of the mid-rib, and halfway between it and the margin. Veins 
show very distinctly as a fine network on the upper surface, 
and when seen through have regular areolae along the mid -rib 
containing free veinlets, and more or less irregular areolae 
between these and the margin. Fertile frond often longer, 
and rather narrower than the barren. 
Buchanan doubted if this and P. normale Don were both 
to be found in South Africa, but included P. Schraderi Mett. 
as a species; and Wood evidently followed in excluding A. 
lineare Thbg. I regard P. lineare as a common forest fern 
(in Kaffraria at least), and P. Schraderi Mett. as a mere 
conditional variety of it, and not very common; while P. 
Pappei ( =P . normale Don) seems quite distinct in all the 
specimens I have seen. 
Polypodium lineare. Thunberg, FI. Jap. 335 (1784); Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 
148; Hk. and Bkr, 354; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr., 1st ed., 197; C. Chr. 
Ind. 540. 
Poly podium Gueinzii. Mett. Polyp. No. 161, tab. III., f. 18, 19. 
Tropical Asia and Africa. 
West. — Knysna (T. H. Rex, 824). 
Kaff. — Bazija (Baur); common in the Perie and other forests, growing 
in shade; Engcoba (A. G. McLoughlin, 83). 
Natal. — (Gueinzius); forest near York (McKen) ; not known to Bu- 
chanan or Wood, but evidently included in their P. Schraderi. 
Transvaal. — Belfast (R. Leendertz, 2779) ; Houtboschberg (J. Burtt- 
Davy, 1241); Haenertsberg (Mrs Pott, 4669). 
Var. / 3 . SIMPLEX (Sw.). Fronds larger and more thinly 
herbaceous, one and a half feet long, two inches broad. Veins 
18—2 
