brown, smooth, densely pilose on both surfaces with soft brownish hairs. Primary pinnæ 4–10 in. long, l½–2½ in. broad, lanceolate, acuminate or almost caudate; secondary ¾–1½in. long, ¼–½ in. broad, linear or linear-oblong, pinnatifid or pinnate at the very base. Segments rather close, falcate, acute; the barren ones larger and broader, almost flat, acutely coarsely toothed; fertile smaller, contracted, concave, obtusely pinnatifid. Sori very numerous, covering the whole under-surface of the frond, small, 3–6 to each segment or 1 to each lobule.—Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 68, t. 23b; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 461; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 51, t. 10, f. 5, and t. 25, f. 1. D. antarctica. Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 10; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 351; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 31 (not of Labill.). D. intermedia. Col. ex Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 461. D. Sparrmanniana, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii. (1880) 364. D. microcarpa, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. XX. (1888) 214.
North and South Islands: From Tauranga and the Middle Waikato southwards, abundant in forests. Chatham Islands: Miss Seddon! Sea-level to 2500 ft. Wehi-ponga ; Kuripaka.
Very close indeed to the Australian D. antarctica, but a much smaller plant, with densely pilose rhachides and costæ, and smaller sori. Mr. Colenso's D. Sparrmanniana is a short-trunked form with rather broader fertile segments; and his D. microcarpa has smaller and more finely cut fronds, with smaller sori; but they both merge gradually into the ordinary form. The Maoris formerly sliced the fibrous outside of the trunk into slabs, and used them in the construction of their food-houses, for the purpose of excluding rats.
3. D. lanata, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 21.—Candex usually long, prostrate and rooting, as thick as the wrist; more rarely short, stout, erect, and attaining a height of 3–6 ft. Fronds few, 3–6 ft. long, 1–3 ft. broad, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 2–3-pinnate, thick and coriaceous but hardly rigid, yellowish-green above, paler beneath. Stipes from half as long to as long as the frond, pale, smooth, clothed at the base with long purplish-brown or yellowish-brown fibrillose scales, when young more or less covered (together with the rhachis and costæ) with soft woolly deciduous hairs, almost glabrous when mature. Primary pinnæ 6–12 in. long, 2–4 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary 1–3 in. long, ⅓–⅔ in. broad, pinnate or pinnatifid. Segments or pinnules rather closely set, slightly falcate; barren oblong or ovate, obtusely or acutely toothed or lobulate; fertile smaller and narrower, deeply pinnatifid. Sori copious, 6–12 to a segment or 1 to each lobule.—Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 69, t. 23c; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 10; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 351; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 461; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 31; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 53, t. 11, f. 1a, 1b, 1c. D. lævis, Ileward ex Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 69.
