Descriptions of the Species. 
237 
Ophioglossum Bergianum. Schl. Adum. 10; Kunze, Linnsea, 10.487 ; 
Hk. Icon. PI. plate 263 ; Pappe and Rawson, 48 ; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 176; 
Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 447. 
Ophioglossum pygmseum. Bergins’ MS. 
Cape Colony only, and very rare ; likely often overlooked. 
West. — Seaside of Lion’s Mountain beyond Sea Point (Bergins, Harvey, 
W. C. Faure), in turf near Kuil’s River (Pappe). 
156. Ophioglossum vulgatum. Linn. 
Plate CXLII. Fig. 2. Natural size. 3. Part of fertile spike, magnified, 
composed of attached capsules, one above another. 
Crown erect, with a few large sheathing bracts, but not 
tuberous. Fronds one or two from a root, four to eight inches 
high ; the fertile part one and a half inches long, surmounted by a 
short point, and having a petiole one to three inches long from 
where it joins the barren pinnule, which is glabrous, one to three 
inches long, three-quarters to one and a half inches broad, ovate, 
pointed, or obtuse and mucronate, and tapering to the base, with 
a more or less distinct mid-rib, thick texture, and plain surface, or 
slightly reflexed edges. Frequently the petiole of the fertile 
segment is connected for a quarter-inch or more with the mid-rib 
of the barren, but sometimes they are free as far down, making the 
barren segment shortly stalked. 
This plant varies much with situation in size, texture, form, 
&c., and I have great difficulty in believing that this and the next 
are distinct species, and not merely conditional extremes of the 
almost cosmopolitan O. vulgatum ; but both are maintained by all 
authorities. The South African plant has even been separated 
from O. vulgatum under the name of O. capense, Schl., on account 
of its sometimes more distinct mid-rib, and this name is used by 
Kunze, Buchanan, Wood, and Kuhn ; while Kunze, and Pappe 
and Rawson introduce in addition O. costatum, R. Br., upon this 
same character. 
Schlechtendal separates as O. capense, Schl., var. / 3 . nudicaule, 
a plant with the barren frond placed near the base of the stalk, 
