Descriptions of the Species. 
5i 
Involucre cut to the base into two flattened, circular, semi-diver- 
gent, strongly toothed lobes ; between which is the globular mass 
of capsules on a short receptacle. 
This is a little beauty, growing in dense masses several feet 
square, on, or near, the solid rock, in the Forest region. During 
dry weather the masses of this look like carpets of nearly black 
shrivelled moss, but when transferred to a moist, close position, 
and kept constantly damp (as in Mr. Marquardt’s fern grotto, 
Cape Town), it develops into a much larger, and more delicate 
plant, of a pellucid light green colour, quite unlike its former self, 
and unequalled, in fragile beauty, by any other fern we have. 
In Government Herbarium are specimens with fronds three 
inches long, one inch wide, on top of leafless stalks six inches 
long ; more divided than the ordinary form, and with very large 
involucres. Also a barren specimen, with rachis entirely without 
wing, and the three to five pinnuled pinnae with very narrow 
drooping pinnules. Kunze mentions a form which he calls var. 
f3. pedunculatum, having fertile segments attenuate to the point, 
and the involucre smaller and oval. All these forms appear to be de- 
pendent on conditions of growth, and can hardly rank as varieties. 
H. Tunbridgense. Smith. Thunb. Flora. Cap. 737; Schl. Ad. 55; 
Schk. Fil. 134; tab. 135 d. ; Kunze, Linnsea, 10, 554; Pappe and 
Rawson, 44 ; Wood’s Natal Ferns, 5 ; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 67 ; 
Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 42. 
H. Dregeanum. Presl. 
H. Thunbergii. Ecklon, in Sched. pi. exs. union, itin. No. 92 (teste 
Kunze, but not Kuhn). 
Leptocionium. V. D. Bosch. 
Found in most parts of the world, from the tropics to Norway. 
In South Africa widely distributed, and not uncommon in the 
forest, but often overlooked, or passed as Trichomanes pyxidi- 
ferum, which, eastward is the more common plant, though in the 
west H. Tunbridgense takes its place. 
West. — Table Mountain, Hottentot’s Holland, &c. (P. and R.), Kirsten- 
bosch, 1500 feet (Bolus), Tulbagh (Ecklon), Knysna, Koratra (Drege). 
East. — Bedford (Holland). 
Kaff. — Perie Mountain, and Frankfort Hill, toward the top. 
