Descriptions of the Species. 
161 
number upward. Pinnae alternate, lanceolate, acuminate, three to 
four inches long, three-quarters to one inch broad, not increasing 
in width at the base, cut throughout into regular ovate-oblong, 
oblique pinnules, three to four lines long, one and a half to two 
lines broad, which are finely toothed, or slightly lobed below. 
Sori several on a pinnule, very short, varying from straight to 
nearly crescent shaped. 
An almost cosmopolitan species, which in Europe has broken 
into innumerable varieties, some of which are very distinct and 
permanent. What in Africa are known as A. Filix-fcemina, 
Bernh.; A. Schimperi, Br.; and A. aspidioides, Schl., are closely con- 
nected forms, which if well known in growth in nature would most 
likely be found to be inseparable as species, but the two former 
being rare, and mostly known from a few dried specimens, they 
must still be retained. 
The specimens from which our figure and the above descrip- 
tion are taken were found by Buchanan on the top of the 
Drakensberg, and are preserved in the Government Herbaria in 
Cape Town and Natal. Wood quotes from Buchanan — “ Very 
like A. Schimperi, but cut somewhat more finely, without any pink 
tint in its rachis, and with a perfectly upright rhizome.” 
Lady Barkly claims to have found it in Basutoland, but the 
specimens in her collection are A. aspidioides. 
“ It grows in the full blaze of the sun, and away from water, in 
the margin of the bush on the heights above Karkloof and Riet 
Vlei, Natal.” (Buchanan.) 
90. Asplenium Schimperi. A. Br. 
Plate LXXXVI. Natural size. b. Fertile pinnule, enlarged. 
Rhizome wide-creeping, slender, with long brown scales. 
Frond firmly herbaceous ovate-lanceolate, pointed, three to four 
inches broad, one to one and a half feet long, and with a stout 
pink-tinted stipe, six inches long, which is paleaceous at the base, 
but nearly naked above ; pinnae deltoid, pointed widest at the 
base, one to two inches long, one inch broad, with six to ten pairs 
M 
