Descriptio?is of the Species. 
61 
West. — Table Mtn., Kerstenbosch, Paradise (Ecklon), Dutoitskloof 
(Drege), Swellendam (Zeyher), Knysna. 
East. — Krakakamma ; Fern Kloof. Grahamstown (Atherstone) ; Bedford, 
&c. 
Kaff. — Bazija (Baur.), Katberg (Smith), Perie, Chumie, Dohne Hill. 
Natal. — From Inanda to Umpumulo (Buch.), Noodsberg (McKen.) 
Genus VI. — Woodsia. Br. 
Small herbaceous ferns, with the sorus at first enclosed in the 
round involucre, which bursts at the top into several irregular 
more or less ciliated lobes. A small genus of which we have but 
one species. 
15. Woodsia Burgessiana. Gerr. 
Plate LX1. Fig. 2 . Natural size. b. pinnule of large frond, c. involucre 
and capsules, enlarged, d. lobe of involucre, magnified. 
Crown tufted ; fronds lanceolate, pinnate, four to eight inches 
long, one to one and a-half inches broad, thinly herbaceous in 
texture, with longish glandular hairs on the rachis, and shorter 
hairs on both sides of the pinnae, but most abundant on the under 
surface. Pinnae sessile, bluntly oblong from a wide base, cut 
halfway to the mid-rib into rounded or oblong toothed lobes, 
generally bearing two to four sori each, and sometimes with the 
margin infolded over the sori. Sori of a few capsules, enclosed 
in a thin globular involucre, which bursts from the top irregularly 
into three to five lobes. This species is placed in the “ Syn. Fil.” 
in the division Physematium, distinguished by having a large in- 
volucre, and not ciliated at the edges. In the former character it 
agrees, but I find the lobes ciliated more or less as in fig. d. 
Several larger and more deeply cut specimens have been seen, and 
one frond sent by Mr. Wood is fifteen inches long, three inches 
broad, with pinnae largest at the middle, there one and a-half inch 
long, tapering from a base three-quarter inch broad, with about 
eight pairs of pinnules, (fig. b) cut to the rachis a quarter to three- 
eighths inch long, one-eighth inch broad, and having about five pairs 
of lobes, each toothed, and bearing a sorus ; whole plant shortly 
and thinly villose. 
