54 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
lar as to cutting, but generally flabellate or sub-pinnate in general 
outline ; cut throughout into simple or forked linear pinnules, a 
half to one inch long, one line broad, and with one central vein 
in each ; the main rachis when present winged like the other 
segments. Margin slightly toothed, with a hair point on each 
tooth. Involucre terminal on the upper pinnules, and quite sunk 
into the lamina, with short round spreading lobes. 
This species is a native of the Mascerene and Polynesian 
islands, and is still given in “ Synopsis Filicum ” as a Cape plant 
on Dr. Brown’s authority ; but it has not been found by any 
collector since, and no Cape specimen exists in the Colonial 
Herbaria, nor is it in Kew Herbarium from the Cape. 
Can it have originated from small barren plants of Hymeno- 
phyllum obtusum ? 
My description and figure are from Samoan specimens, kindly 
forwarded to me from Kew.) 
io. Trichomanes pusillum. Swartz. 
Plate VI. Fig. 2. Nat. size. b margin and hairs, magnified ; 
c involucre magnified. 
Rhizomes long, slender, and coated with short black shag. 
Fronds sessile or almost so, glaucous green, membranaceous, very 
irregular in outline, sometimes linear-oblong and sinuate, more 
frequently obovate from a cuneate base, deeply pinnatifid into 
rounded, irregular pinnules, more or less wavy at the margin, and 
with frequent blunt lobes or teeth, crowned by two or more sessile 
hairs arranged stellate fashion. Fronds a half to one and a half 
inches long, a quarter to three-quarter inch broad, and bearing the 
sori terminal on the veins in the upper part. Involucre quite 
exserted, tubular from a contracted base, and having two large 
semi-circular lobes at the mouth. Receptacle twice as long as the 
tube, but bearing capsules only on its lower half. The veins are 
pinnately arranged, but numerous ; spurious venules exist, gener- 
ally leading up to the tufts of hairs. 
Var. querci folium., Hk. and Gr., (Plate VI., Fig. 3) is 
larger, with upper pinnae three-quarter inch long, and more or less 
