68 
The Ferns of South Africa . 
Credited in “ Syn. Fil.” to Cape Colony, but no locality is 
known to me. 
Genus X. — Adiantum, Linn. 
A very natural group of ferns, having black wiry stems, and 
delicately herbaceous pinnules, which bear on their tips, or in 
notches of the outer margin, the reniform or longish sori. Indu- 
sium membranaceous, opening inward, and bearing the capsules 
on its inner surface. Veins free in all our species. This is a 
large and widely distributed genus, mostly tropical, and almost all 
the species are favourites in cultivation. 
Key to the species : — 
§ Frond simple, reniform. 
21. A. reniforme. 
§§ Frond pinnate. 
22. A. caudatum. 
§§§ Frond 2, 3, 4 pinnate. 
23. A. Capillus- Veneris. Sori across the top of the lobes or pinnules, 
longish, nearly straight, not sunk, pinnules cuneate. 
24. A. Paradisese. See description. 
25. A. thalictroides. Pinnules shortly cuneate or roundish, small ; sori 
one to two in each, reniform, in a deep sinus. 
26. A. CEthiopicum. Pinnules rounded at the base, large ; sori several 
in each, curved or reniform. 
21. Adiantum reniforme. Linn. Var. Asarifolium. 
Willd. 
Plate XV. Fig 1. Natural size. 
Crown tufted, stalks, wiry, three to six inches long, shining, 
nearly black, with a few brown scales at the base. Frond reni- 
form, one and a half to two inches broad, with a deep sinus, and 
the rounded lobes at the base almost meeting. Frond firm in 
texture, often plaited, glabrous, except at the top of the stalk, 
where there are scattered woolly hairs. Frond slightly lobed, each 
lobe all round the frond except at the base, bearing a sorus one to 
three lines long, half-line broad, forming a crescent-shaped hollow 
on the margin. Veins distinct, flabellate from the stem, afterwards 
forking, three to eight venules going to each lobe. 
Mascerene islands. Only known as African by some barren 
/ 
