286 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
in making the two former synonymous and including both 
Kunze’s A. conforme and A. angustatmn , while he omits 
A. viscosum from South Africa, and thus makes only one 
species of this group. 
Lady Barkly also grouped all under A. conforme. Schlech- 
tendal’s A. angustatum is evidently this species, though with a 
longer stipe. 
E. petiolatum grows more or less throughout S. Africa, 
but I have only seen E. conforme from Western Province, 
and var. latifolium from Natal and Rhodesia. Buchanan and 
Wood used the name A. conforme for A. petiolatum. 
Elaphoglossum conforme (Sw.). Schott, Gen. ad. t. 14 (1834); C. Chr. 
lnd. 304. 
Acrostichum conforme Swartz. Hk. Sp. 5, 198; Hk. and Bkr, Syn. 
Fit. 401; Kuhn, Fit. Afr. 43; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr. 1st ed. 219 
(not Schlechtendal, Kunze, Buchanan, nor Wood). 
Acrostichum angustatmn. Schl. A dum. 14, tab. 5; Kze, Linnaea, 10, 
494. 
Olfersia angustata. Pappe and Rawson, 44. 
Baker and Kuhn place Vittaria acrostichoides Hk. and Gr. 
186 (Kze, Linn. 10, 528; P. and R. 53) as an abnormal form 
of this with the sori in two sub-marginal lines. 
Widely distributed in the tropics. 
West. — Knysna (Eck.); Swellendam (Zeyher); Voorman’s Bosch, 
Table Mountain (Bolus); Hottentot’s Holland, Caledon (P. and 
R.); George (Holland); Noord Hoek, Simonstown (Lady Barkly); 
Grootvadersbosch (Zeyher). 
Var. LATIFOLIUM Sim. 
Plate 148. Nat. size. 
Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, thickly clothed with 
wavy, pointed, dark scales. Barren fronds very various, 
lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, widest below the middle, 
rounded or tapering to the stipe, and narrowed above to 
a blunt point ; half to two feet long, two to four inches 
broad, with a naked light-coloured stipe two to eight inches 
long. Frond quite glabrous, thickly coriaceous, with hidden 
veins, and entire cartilaginous undulated edges. Mid-rib 
prominent. Fertile frond rather smaller and narrower, the 
