222 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
Var. rupestre. Mihi. 
Plate CXXXII. Fig. 2. Nat. size. 
Rhizome widely creeping, at first densely set with ovate 
pointed dark scales, afterwards naked. Frond one to three inches 
long, half to three-quarter inch broad, narrowly oval, bluntly 
pointed, or rounded at the apex, tapering to the stipe, sub- 
coriaceous; both surfaces as well as the short stipe bearing 
numerous deciduous, ovate, membranaceous, brown scales, which 
soon fall off the upper surface, leaving it leathery, dark green, 
glabrous, and lined by the parallel veins. Fertile frond rather 
narrower. The extreme form which grows on exposed rocks above 
4000 feet alt., looks very distinct from forest grown forms of A. 
viscosum, but every intermediate occurs at lower altitudes, 
West. — Table Mountain (Bolus 3899, in part), Zwaarteberg, Caledon 
(Ecklon). 
Kaff. — Dohne Hill, Perie, &c. 
Transvaal. — Pilgrim’s Rest (T. H. McLea). 
142. Acrostichum hybridum. Bory. 
Plate CXXXIII. a. Barren frond, nat. size. b. Fertile frond, nat size. 
Crown procumbent or with a short rhizome, woody, densely 
paleaceous, with long linear nearly black wavy scales. Barren 
frond lanceolate, firmly herbaceous, brittle, thin, deep green, entire, 
but undulated at the margin ; more or less pointed at the apex, 
rounded below, four to twelve inches long, with a firm stipe three 
to eight inches long. Frond almost naked on both surfaces, but 
fringed all round the edge with small linear deciduous black scales, 
while the mid-rib on the under side as well as the stipe, are 
furnished at first with lanceolate, black, spreading or deflexed, 
deciduous scales one to one and a half lines long, which are easily 
rubbed off, and are often nearly awanting from old plants. Fertile 
frond quite different, and much smaller than the barren, one to 
one and a half inches long, quarter to three-eighths inch broad, 
