FERNS OF NATAL. 
5 
peculiarity it has if bearing threadlike anomalous barren pinnae, which are 
sometimes 1 foot or more long and 6 or 8 inches broad, attached to the 
fertile fronds near the base of the stipes, and which have often been mis- 
taken for a species of Trichomanes and which were in first described as 
Triohomanes incisum by one botanist, and as T. cormophilum by another. 
In damp shady places and near streamlets in the bush, in the midland 
districts it grows luxuriantly, but though the caudex, attains nearly the 
same length, it has not the thickness or strength of that of Cyathea, and 
is often found stretched along the ground for a great part of its length, a 
position seldom assumed by Cyathea. It is a common fern in the Cape 
Colony, and plants of it were sent to Kew, by Mr. Chas. Zeyher, in 1845. 
WOODSIA Burgessiana. 
This genus is named in honor of Mr. Joseph Woods, an English botanist 
and this, our only Natal species, was discovered by Mr. Gerard, in the up- 
country districts, and the specific name Burgessiana was given by him. 
The Woodsias are readily distinguished by the peculiar construction of 
their indusia, which have not the appearance of a cover to the sori, but are 
attached underneath and when they burst form an irregular fringe which is 
often not easily detected without a lens. Our species belongs to the section 
Physematium which has the indusium larger than the sorus and not 
ciliated. The following description is taken from the Synopsis Filicum. 
‘Frond 6 in. long, 2 in. wide, lanceolate, glandulose, pubescent, mem- 
branaceous, flaccid, pinnated; pinnae sessile ; from broad truncated base, 
oblong, pinnatifid ; lobes broad, subtruncated, toothed at the apex ; sori 
small, rather sparse, submarginal; involucre thin, membranaceous, de- 
pressed, hemispherical, sublobate ( apparently from the long capsules 
within) opening irregularly at the apex persistent, at length breaking down 
into a very irregular margin.’ 
HYMENOPHYLLUM, Filmy Ferns. 
(hymen, a membrane ; phyllon, a leaf) 
A genus of ferns found in the greatest luxuriance in tropical climates, 
but extending also to the temperate zone, one or two of the species being 
natives of Great Britain. They are usually small, sometimes very minute, 
delicate in texture, with free veins and thread-like creeping rhizomes. The 
sori are marginal, the spore cases being clustered round the projecting end 
of a vein which thus forms the receptacle, and are enclosed in little cysts 
or cups which are two-lipped or two-valved, and which form the indusium. 
H. Tunbridgense. Tunbridge Filmy Fern. 
A small mosslike fern with membranaceous fronds growing on rocks and 
stones in moist places, and, like some species of Trichomanes no doubt 
often mistaken for moss. The fruit is borne at the margin of the frond 
on a bristle-like receptacle, which is in fact a continuation of a vein, and is 
enclosed in a cup-shaped two-valved indusium. A close examination of 
this fern will show there it is little more than a series of winged veins 
bearing the fruit in their axils. It is found plentifully in the midland and 
upper districts of the Colony. 
II , Wilsoni, which is classed as a variety of this fern, has its indusium 
entire; pinnae with fewer lobes, and divided on the upper side only. It 
is usually found in company with H. Tunbridgense, and is stated in the 
Synopsis Filicum to be connected with it by every intermediate stage of 
gradation 
