DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
303 
lines long, one to three lines wide, several or all of which are 
modified into capsule-bearing spikes. Terminal pinnule usually 
forked. Involucres caducous. 
This species, which occurs in Eastern Asia, Eastern 
Australia, Australasia and tropical Africa, has several forms; 
our plant differs considerably from the form most common in 
cultivation. 
In the report of the Natal Botanic Garden and Herbarium, 
1909 — 1910, reference is made under the name L. volubile 
Sw. to specimens sent from Zululand. L. volubile Sw. is a 
tropical American species very closely allied to L. scandens , 
and evidently these Zululand specimens belonged to L. 
scandens which Dr Wood had previously included in his 
Handbook of the Flora of Natal , 1907. 
L. scandens (Linn.). Sw. Schrad. Jour. (1801); Hk. and Bkr, Syn. 
Fil. 43 7 (in part); C. Chr. Ind. 413. 
Ophioglossum scandens. Linn. Sp. 2, 1063 (1753). 
Natal. — Zululand (R. D. Lyle, Jan. 1899; Wood, 7335 ; Natal Govt 
Herb., 7982 and 77 52); Maputa, Amatongaland, 1902 (Sehof ; 
Gryspeert). 
183. Lygodium Kerstenii Kuhn. “ Climbing Fern.” 
Plate 163. Nat. size. B Fertile segment, enlarged. 
Stem wiry, scandent. Frond glabrous, or more or less 
villose, dichotomously branched at the base, each pinna bi- 
pinnate or more divided ; pinnules not articulated, one to 
three inches long, crenate, lobed along the margin, trifid or 
with large lobes at the base. Lower pinnules three to five- 
lobed, the central lobe largest. Fertile fronds scarcely different 
from the barren, except that they bear the short narrow spikes 
all along the margin. 
Mr Holland’s specimens are the barren base fronds from 
non-climbing stems, and consequently, as occurs throughout 
the genus, larger and more flabellate than those which occur 
on the climbing stems. Mrs Bennett sends similar specimens, 
which she states have not got beyond that state during three 
years’ cultivation, but she also sends beautiful scandent speci- 
mens, fully fertile, from the natural habitat. Swynnerton 
states: “ A handsome climbing fern, which often completely 
