70 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
Aspidium aristatum. Swartz.; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 255; Kuhn, Fil. 
Afr. 209; Buchanan’s List, No. 82 (where M‘Ken’s A. frondosum is 
said to be a mistake). 
Asia, Australia, and South Africa ; beside streamlets in bush. 
Kaff. — Katberg (Holland), Bazija (Baur. ). 
Natal. — Maritzburg, sources of the Umlaas, Nottingham, Karkloof 
(Buchanan). 
Transvaal. — Macamac gold fields (J. H. M‘Lea, No. 7). 
98. Aspidium Macleaii. Baker (in Hook. Icon. Plant, Nov. 
1886, tab. 1654). 
Plate XCI 1 I. Nat. size. b. Scale from crown. 
Crown erect, densely paleaceous, with large, widely lanceolate, 
laciniated, thin, brown scales. Frond coriaceous, leathery, simply 
pinnate, widely lanceolate, glabrous on the upper surface, two to 
three feet long, one foot broad, with a stout stipe one foot long, 
which is densely set with large scales at the base, and with smaller 
more fibrillose scales upward. Rachis also fibrillose, and the 
under side of the pinnae more or less so. Pinnae in thirty to fifty 
opposite pairs, approximate, almost sessile, lanceolate acuminate, 
half-inch broad, six inches long ; lower ones rather shorter, all 
deeply and sharply toothed throughout ; cut away at the base on 
the lower side, but with a toothed lobe or auricle on the upper 
side. Veins free; one group for each tooth. Sori small, in a 
single line near to the mid-rib, or more frequently scattered in 
three or four irregular lines, or with scattered sori out on the lobes, 
the outer ones always smaller. 
Baker’s figure, especially the magnified one, shows the lobes 
rounded, with five to six almost equal teeth, but in the fronds I 
have seen most of the lobes are single large sharp teeth, while 
toward the base of the pinnae the lobes or auricles are sharp 
pointed, with a few small teeth along the edges. The auricle is 
sometimes cut quite to the rachis, and occasionally three to four 
lobes are so, and then slightly stalked. This is a very distinct 
plant. 
