The Ferns of South Africa. 
I 5° 
8 1. Asplenium solidum. Kunze. 
Plate LXXVI. Natural size. b. Fertile pinnule. 
Crown procumbent, glabrous. Fronds deltoid, coriaceous, 
glabrous, shining, green, three to four-pinnatifid, six to fifteen 
inches long, four to seven inches broad, with a channelled, green 
or brown naked stipe, four to six inches long. Pinnae mostly 
alternate, numerous, stalked, deltoid, sharp pointed, increasing in 
size downward ; the lowest three to four inches long, one and a 
half inches broad, with about five pairs of alternate, shortly 
stalked, deltoid pinnules, one-half to one inch apart. Pinnules 
cut to the mid-rib below, into narrowly cuneate, three-lobed 
segments, which have three to five sharp pointed divergent teeth 
on each lobe. Upper segments narrower, not lobed, slightly con- 
fluent, but similarly toothed ; and the pinnule pointed, with a few 
large alternate simple teeth. Sori one to two lines, long, alternate, 
and near the mid-rib above, or two to three in each pinnule below. 
Kunze mentions two varieties, A. platyphyllum and A. steno- 
phyllum. The latter is the form in our figure, the former is 
slightly broader in all its parts, and while evidently a form of 
A. solidum, it also comes very near A. Adiantum-nigrum, L., var. 
acutum, which, like this, has three to five long teeth with the 
central one longest, and which is well known as a European plant, 
and quoted in “ Moore's Index ” as from South Africa, though 
this is the only representative of it I have seen. A. solidum 
resembles a Darea in the cutting, but has the sori facing inward, 
and not quite marginal. 
A. solidum. Kze. Linnaea, 10.520; Pappe and Rawson, 21; Moore’s 
Index, 169 ; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 116 ; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 214. 
Darea mucronata. De Cand. Hb. 
This species grows under bushes, mostly among coast sands, 
and is rather rare. 
West. — George (Lady Barkly), Ruigte Valley (Drege). 
East. — Algoa Bay (Forbes), Bushman’s River (Holland), Kowiemouth 
(MacOwan). 
