Descriptions of the Species . 
227 
147. Osmunda regalis. Linn. 
Plate CXXXVIII. Small frond, natural size. Fig. b. occasional 
fertile condition. 
Crown tufted, sub-erect, often large, the young fronds clothed 
with yellowish woolly tomentum. Fronds two to four feet long, 
one to one and a half feet broad, two-pinnate, and barren for the 
most part, but with a changed, two to three-pinnate, fertile apex. 
Barren pinnae three to six pairs, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, glabrous, 
light green, herbaceous, or sub-coriaceous, eight to twelve inches 
long, three to four inches broad, and having six to ten pairs of 
rather irregular, oblong, sessile pinnae, one to one and a half inches 
long, half-inch broad, obtuse at the apex, entire or minutely serrate 
at the edges, and rounded or somewhat lobed at the base. Fertile 
pinnae shorter, and altogether different, very various ; sometimes 
with entire, somewhat foliaceous pinnules two lines broad, and 
fertile only along the edges (fig. b.) ; but more frequently the 
pinnules are entirely covered with capsules on the under surface, 
shortly stalked, and having several round or oblong lobes con- 
nected only by the mid-rib. The fertile part soon dies down, and 
the fronds mostly die down in winter. They are generally two- 
thirds barren, but sometimes altogether barren, and occasionally 
two-thirds fertile ; while Baker mentions having received speci- 
mens from Natal, in which the lateral pinnae were fertile, while the 
terminal were barren. 
Willdenow makes the South African plant a separate species 
(O. spectabilis, Willd.) differing from the European form in being 
more coriaceous, and having longer, and frequently lobed 
pinnules. Pappe and Rawson give the two forms from South 
Africa, but I have seen only one form, and that not sufficiently 
distinct to be even a variety. 
Osmunda regalis. Linn.; Kunze, Linnsea, 10.491 ; Pappe and Rawson, 
46 ; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 427 ; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 173. 
O. spectabilis. Willd.; Sp. PI. V. 98. 
O. regalis, L., var. spectabilis, Kze.; Pappe and Rawson, 47. 
O. capensis. Presl. (not O. capensis, Linn., which is Lomaria procera, 
Desv.). 
