DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
289 
frond lanceolate, firmly herbaceous, brittle, thin, deep green, 
entire, but undulated at the margin ; more or less pointed at 
the apex, rounded below, four to twelve inches long, with a 
firm stipe three to eight inches long. Frond almost naked 
on both surfaces, but fringed all round the edge with small 
linear, deciduous, black scales, while the mid-rib on the under 
side, as well as the stipe, are furnished at first with lanceolate, 
black, spreading or deflexed, deciduous scales one to one and 
a half lines long, which are easily rubbed off, and are often 
nearly absent from old plants. Fertile frond quite different, 
and much smaller than the barren, one to one and a half 
inches long, quarter to three-eighths inch broad, flattened 
when nearly mature, afterwards involute, narrower, and re- 
curved, all soriferous, and with a more or less paleaceous stipe 
one to three inches long. Veins forked, parallel. 
Old barren fronds, from which the scales have fallen, re- 
semble E. petiolatum in texture and general appearance ; but 
the fertile frond is quite distinct. 
Elafthoglossum hybridum (Bory). Moore’s Index , 358 (1857); C. Chr. 
Ind. 308. 
Acrostichum hybridum Bory. Hk. and Bkr, Syn. Fil. 403 ; Kuhn, 
Fil. Afr. 45 ; Wood’s Natal Ferns , 37 ; Sim, Ferns of S. Afr. 
1st ed. 222. 
Tropical America, Africa, and African islands; growing 
on damp shaded rocks in wooded ravines. 
West. — Paarde Kraal, Knysna (Burchell, 5152; Kuhn). 
Kaff. — Abundant in a ravine below Bailey’s Grave, Perie (T. R. Sim); 
also sent by Mr Ely from locality uncertain; Engcoba (McLoughlin, 
106). 
Natal. — Great Noodsberg, near Peel’s, Umlaas, and rare at Maritz- 
burg (McKen); Karkloof, 3000 to 5000 feet, and Drakensberg 
(Buchanan); Benvie, York (Marriott). 
170. Elaphoglossum Aubertii (Desv.) Moore. 
Plate 152. Nat. size. 
Rhizome short, firm, densely clothed in rather adpressed 
linear brown scales. Barren frond linear-lanceolate, entire, 
tapering gradually to the point and to the base, thinly herba- 
ceous, reddish green, one to two , feet long, three-quarters to 
s. f. s. A. 
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