6o 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
sessile, two to four inches long, half to three-quarter inch broad, 
cut almost to the mid-rib into strongly toothed, pointed, narrowly 
oblong segments, which bear one sorus each, placed on the lowest 
veinlet on the upper side. 
Fronds have a bare stipe of two feet or thereby, at the base of 
which arise a pair of abortive or skeletonised pinnae (fig. c.), gener- 
ally without any lamina, or with only a very little, but green and 
flaccid when young, and not resembling in the slightest degree the 
pinnae above. These abortive pinnae were mistaken by early 
Botanists for distinct epiphytal ferns, and are believed to have 
been the Trichomanes incisum of Thunberg, though he distin- 
guishes by the fructification the genus Trichomanes, of which this, 
which bears no sori, was his only species ; while Hemitelia is not 
included at all in his flora, unless his Polypodium capense be in- 
tended for it, and, if so, it is rather strange that the tree-like 
caudex should not be mentioned. Trichomanes cormophyllum, 
Klfs., is another name for the abnormal pinnae. 
Sori one line long, on a conical receptacle, and subtended on 
the side next the mid-rib by a small ovate or lobed scale, or 
involucre, hardly large enough to show from under the capsules, 
and frequently awanting or falling off early, in consequence of 
which this species was formerly placed in the genus Alsophila, 
in which there is no involucre. Specimens from Bazija have sori 
much larger than usual, and sometimes two to a segment, but are 
otherwise the same as the ordinary form. 
Hemitelia Capensis, R. Br. ; Schl. Adum. 55 ; Kunze, Linnaea, 10,552 ; 
23,257; Pappe and Rawson, 11. Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 162; Hk. and Bkr. 
Syn. Fil. 29. 
Alsophila Capensis, J. Smith; Hk. Sp. Fil. 1-36. 
Amphicosmia riparia. Gardner, Lond. Jour. Bot. it. 12. 
Polypodium Capense, Linn.; Thunb. prod. 172; Thunb. Flora Cap. 
735. (teste Kuhn). 
In moist ravines in shade all through the upper part of the 
forest region, especially by waterfalls, or perennial dashing stream- 
lets more common inland than on the coast. In Natal in midland 
districts only, at 2000 to 3000 feet altitude. Found also in 
Mascerenes and S. America. 
