226 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
146. Acrostichum aureum. Linn. 
Plate CXXXVII. Upper part of frond, natural size. 
Crown erect, very large. Fronds pinnate, rigid, coriaceous, 
glabrous, three to six feet long, one foot broad, with a rigid naked 
stipe one to two feet long. Pinnae oblong lanceolate, the lower 
shortly stalked and barren, six to twelve inches long, one to two 
inches broad ; the upper fertile, almost sessile, four to six inches 
long, three-quarters to one inch broad, with a recurved margin all 
rounded and obtuse, or mucronate at the apex, rounded or shortly 
cuneate at the base, and with the margin entire. Mid-rib con- 
spicuous ; veinlets obscure, anastomosing freely into small 
irregular areolae, but without any main veins, or any free veinlets. 
Fertile pinnae wholly occupied with sori except the mid-rib. 
Acrostichum aureum. Linn. ; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 423. 
Chrysodium aureum. Mett.; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 50. 
Acrostichum insequale. Willd. ; Pappe and Rawson, 44 ; Kunze, Linnsea, 
21.207. 
Acrostichum maritimum. Gueinzius MS. 
Tropics generally, including Africa. 
East. — Algoa Bay (Stanger fide Kuhn). 
Natal. — At the edge of high water at Cato’s Creek (M‘Ken), all round the 
Bay of Natal, and near Umhlali (Buchanan), Coast, in marshes and 
estuaries (Wood). 
Transvaal. — Near Magalisberg (Sanderson). 
Sub-Order IV. — Osmundace^e. 
Genus XXXI. — Osmunda. Linn. 
Fertile pinnae with almost no lamina, and in our species 
confined to the upper part of the frond, while the lower part is 
foliaceous and barren. A small genus belonging to the temperate 
zones. 
