FERNS OF NATAL. 
15 
ometiines again divided, veins simple or forked and plainly visible: 
ori narrow and continuous. There is a variety in the Tropics called 
Ibo-lineata, which has a white stripe down the centre of each pinna, and 
vliich is common in cultivation. 
P . quadriaurita. 
A fine fern from 3 to 5 feet high, found beside streams all over the 
Colony ; it is bipinnate, with the lowest pair of pinnae again compound, 
laving one or two smaller pinnules branching from them on the lower 
-ide, hence the name; the segments are linear-oblong, and are not divided 
juite down to the rachis ; all rounded at the end except the terminal ones 
vhich are elongated and terminate in a fine point: the sori are narrow 
md continuous, but do not usually meet, either at the base or apex of the 
-segments ; the veins are conspicuous and forked. 
P . Jlabellata. 
St. 1 ft. or more long, strong, erect, naked, glossy, straw-coloured ; frond 
1-3 feet long, 1 ft. or more broad ; terminal pinna 6-12 in. long, 2-3 iu. 
broad, made up of numerous, almost contiguous, erecto-patent linear 
lobes 1-2 in. long, 2 3 lines broad, which reach down nearly to the rachis, 
and are finely 7 serrated when barren ; pinnae several on each side, similar 
to the terminal one ; the lowest with 1-3 similar small pinnules from the 
base on the lower side : texture herbaceous, rachis and both surfaces naked ;. 
veins ^ in. apart at the base, usually once forked; sori narrow, continuing 
dong nearly the whole length of the segments. It is best distinguished 
from P. quadriaurita, by its more herbaceous texture, and also by the 
tips of the fertile segments, being always more or less toothed. 
P. tremula. 
A common fern in New Zealand. A dried specimen was found in the 
herbarium of Mr. Rawson, at Cape Town, but the locality where gathered 
was unknown, we first found it in a ravine near the coast. The stipes is 
naked, 6-8 inches long; frond 12 to 18 inches long, bipinnate, with the 
larger pinnae again pinnate or bipinnate, and ending in an attenuated 
pinnatifid apex ; ultimate segments linear, oblong, rounded at the point, 
decurrent at the base ; sori and indusium continuous along the sides 
of the segments, and sometimes nearly meeting at the poin t : veins fine 
and conspicuous, forked. 
Section PjEsia. 
P. aquilina, Brake or bracken. 
Common brake, known to every one, and growing in profusion all over 
! the Colony, it is the most common fern in England. Culpepper say r s of 
it “ it is the plant that in Sussex is called Brakes, the seed of which 
" some authors hold to be so rare ; such a thing there is I know, and may 
“ be easily had upon midsummer eve, and for ought I know 2 or 3 days 
“ after it, if not more.” He also says — “This fern being burned the smoke 
“ thereof driveth away serpents, gnats and other noisome creatures, which 
“ in fenny 7 countries do in the night time, trouble and molest people 
“ lying in their beds with their faces uncovered.” It is the badge of the 
Robertsons. 
Section Campterta. 
P. Buchanani, 
A fine large fern growing 6 to 8 feet high, first found by 7 Rev. J. Buchanan 
at lntshanga. Its rhizome is creeping and subterranean; stipes naked and 
