Descriptions of the Species. 
225 
green, with scattered, lanceolate, dark scales two lines long. 
Fronds distant; the barren pinnate; the fertile irregularly two- 
pinnate. Barren frond coriaceous, glabrous, glossy green, ovate- 
lanceolate, three to four feet long, one to one and a half feet 
broad, with a stipe one to two feet long, and about twenty pairs of 
alternate, lanceolate acuminate, shortly stalked, undulated pinnae, 
which are sharply serrate along the cartilaginous margin, six to 
twelve inches long, and one inch broad, with a conspicuous mid- 
rib ; and close, visible, parallel, free veinlets. Fertile frond three 
to four feet long, one foot broad, with a one to two feet stipe, and 
stout rachis ; two-pinnate ; the pinnae one and a half inches apart, 
stalked, rather flaccid, four to six inches long, two to three inches 
broad, with numerous distinct, linear, very irregular, more or less 
pointed, pinnules one-half to two inches long, one line broad, 
covered along the under surface with sori, and after maturity all 
twisted into a confused mass. The rachis of the pinnae is some- 
times also fertile in part, and occasionally fertile fronds 
occur (on the same plants as ordinary fertile fronds) in 
which the fertile pinnae are six to eight inches long, one 
line broad, and without pinnules, or with only an occasional one. 
Wood remarks — “ Its rhizomes sometimes almost encircle the 
trees upon which it grows, and its fronds are often produced at 
twenty to thirty feet from the ground ; the fertile fronds to be 
found only about January or February.” The young rhizomes are 
sometimes several yards long before fronds are produced, 
Acrostichum (Stenochlsena) tenuifolium. Baker Syn. Fil. 412. 
Lomaria tenuifolia. Desv. 
Acrostichum Meyerianum. Hk. Sp. V. 250. 
Stenochlsena Meyeriana. Presl. ; Pappe and Rawson, 43. 
Lomaria Meyeriana. Mett. 
Polybotrya tenuifolia. Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 52. 
Mascerene Islands, and coast districts of Natal and Kaffraria. 
Kaff. — Manubie Forest (J. H. Bowker). 
Natal. — Common in Wet Coast Bush, reaching to Inanda, and Umsundusi 
Mission Station, 2000 feet (Buchanan, M‘Ken). 
Q 
