DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
321 
Christensen doubtfully places this in O. Gomezianum 
Welw., which he locates in tropical and South Africa. 
West. — Lammkraal, Clanwilliam, 1000 ft, Aug. 1897 (R. Schl. 10,842). 
East. — Hankey (Mrs T. V. Patterson, 21). 
198. Ophioglossum CAPENSE Sw. 
Plate 166. Fig. 2. Nat. size. Fig. 3. Part of fertile spike, magnified, 
composed of attached capsules, one above another. 
Plate 167. Fig. 3. Small form, nat. size. 
Crown erect, with a few large sheathing bracts, but not 
tuberous. Fronds one or two from a root, four to eight 
inches high ; the fertile part one and a half inches long, 
surmounted by a short point, and having a petiole one to 
three inches long from where it joins the barren pinnule, 
which is glabrous, one to three inches long, three-quarters 
to one and a half inches broad, ovate, pointed, or obtuse 
and mucronate, and tapering to the base, with a more or 
less distinct mid-rib, thick texture, and plain surface, or 
slightly reflexed edges. Frequently the petiole of the fertile 
segment is connected for a quarter inch or more with the 
mid-rib of the barren, but sometimes they are free as far 
down, making the barren segment shortly stalked. 
This plant varies much with situation in size, texture, 
form, etc., and I have great difficulty in believing that this 
and the next are distinct species, and not merely conditional 
extremes of the almost cosmopolitan O. vulgatum Linn.; but 
both are maintained by all authorities. The South African 
plant has been separated from O. vulgatum under the name 
of O. capense , on account of its sometimes more distinct mid- 
rib, and this name is used by Kunze, Buchanan, Wood, and 
Kuhn ; while Kunze, and Pappe and Rawson, introduce in 
addition O. costatum R. Br., on account of this same character. 
Schlechtendal separates as O. capense Schl., var. / 3 . nudi- 
caule, a plant with the barren frond placed near the base of 
the stalk, and makes it synonymous with O. nudicaule L. 
This is maintained by Kuhn {Fil. Afr. 178), as also is O. 
fibrosum Schum. (from near Magalisberg ?), a similar plant, 
with thin reticulated barren fronds. Christensen also makes 
s. f. s. A. 
21 
