Exped. 173; Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 232; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 374. A. Brownii, J. Sm. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 36; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 978. Athyrium umbrosum, Presl. Pterid. 98. A. australe, Presl. l.c. Allantodia australis, R. Br. Prodr. 149. A. tenera, R. Br. I.c.; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 186 Raoul, Choix, 37.
North Island: Not uncommon from the Bay of Islands to the East Cape and Taranaki, from thence somewhat rare and local to Cook Strait, usually on calcareous or alluvial soils. South Island: Nelson—Travers; near Foxhill, T. F. C.; West Wanganui, Kingsley. Sea-level to 1800 ft.
Also found in Australia and Tasmania, the Malay Archipelago, India, tropical Africa to the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira.
12. A. japonicum, Thunb. Fl. Jap. 334.—Rhizome long, slender, creeping, branched, densely scaly at the tip. Stipes 3–9 in. long, slender, pale-brown or straw-coloured, scaly when young, especially near the base. Fronds 6–12 in. long without the stipes, 2½–5 in. broad, ovate-lanceolate, long-acumiuate, pale-green, thin and membranous, glabrous on both surfaces or sprinkled with a few weak hairs, pinnate below, pinnatifid towards the apex; rhachis slender, slightly scaly. Pinnæ spreading, rather distant, 1½–3 in. long, lanceolate, acuminate, deeply pinnatifid; lobes about ⅓ in. long, close, oblong, obtuse, slightly toothed or nearly entire. Veins pinnate in the lobes; veinlets 4–6 on each side, simple or forked. Sori linear-oblong, usually occupying all the veinlets, reaching two-thirds of the distance from the midrib to the margin, the lowest one in each lobe usually diplazioid.—Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 234; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 750; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 448. A. Schkuhrii, Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 251. Diplazium congruum, Brack. Fil. U.S. Expl. Exped. 141, t. 18; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 178.
Kermadec Islands: Ravines on Sunday Island, not common, T. F. C. North Island: Auckland—Banks of the Awanui River (near Kaitaia), R. H. Matthews! R. Carse! Okura River (Bay of Islands), Miss Clarke! Northern Wairoa River, G. E. Smith!
This appears to be a widely distributed species, ranging through Polynesia to the Malay Archipelago, India, China, and Japan. It is possible that Mr. Kirk's A. umbrosum var. tenuifolium (Trans. N.Z. Inst, xxiii. 424), of which I have seen no specimens, may be identical with it.
19. ASPIDIUM, Swartz
Rhizome short and erect or ascending, or long and creeping. Fronds tufted at the top of the rhizome or more or less distant along it, very variable in size cutting and venation, 2–3-pinnate or pinnate, coriaceous, more rarely submembranous; veins free in all the New Zealand species. Sori globose, dorsal, placed on the back or at the tip of a vein, or at the junction of two veins. Indusium
