224 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
South America and tropical South Africa ; growing on damp 
rocks and trees in deep shade. 
Natal. — Peel’s, Umlaas, Townhill Bush, Maritzburg (M‘Ken), Karkloof 
(Buchanan), Little Noodsberg (Wood). 
144. Acrostichum spathulatum. Bory. 
Crown tufted, paleaceous. Barren fronds obovate cuneate, 
rounded at the apex, sub-coriaceous, entire, one to two inches 
long, quarter to half-inch broad, and tapering gradually to the 
slender but firm one to two inch stipe, which is set with soft, 
spreading, almost hair-like, brown scales, as also is the frond on 
both surfaces, especially round the margin. Fertile frond different, 
almost circular, with a crenate margin, half-inch long and broad ; 
the under surface filled with sori except at the margin, the upper 
surface hairy like the two-inch stipe. The two halves of the 
fertile frond fold more or less together over the sori, sometimes 
quite close. Veins indistinct. 
A. spathulatum. Bory ; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 408 ; Kuhn, Fil. 
Afr. 47. 
A. piloselloides. Presl. 
Tropical America, Ceylon, South Africa, and Mascerenes. 
Natal. — On moist rocks open to the south, from Seven Mile Bush through 
Nottingham to Karkloof, 4000 to 5000 feet (Buchanan), Lyndoch 
(M‘Ken), lngoma, Zululand (Gerrard). 
145. Acrostichum tenuifolium. Baker. 
Plate CXXXII. Fig. 1. Natural size. 
Plates | 
CXXXV. Part of barren frond. Natural size. 
CXXXVI. Part of fertile frond. Natural size. 
Rhizome many yards long, one quarter inch diameter, woody. 
Sometimes branched, procumbent on the surface, or scandent, 
