3–9 in. broad, broadly ovate or deltoid to ovate-lanceolate, pale-green when fresh, firm or almost rigid, 4-pinnatifid; rhachis and costæ more or less clothed with scattered crisped hairs. Primary and secondary pinnæ ovate-lanceolate, ascending; tertiary 15–⅓ in. long, ovate or oblong, cut down almost to the rhachis into several entire or sharply-toothed lobes; under-surface glabrous or slightly hairy. Sori numerous, small, roundish, placed under a small lobule in the sinuses of the pinnules. Indusium composed of the reflexed and almost unaltered tip of the lobule.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 23; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 361; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 130; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 56; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 85, t. 3, f. 2.
North Island: East Cape district, Bishop Williams; base of Ruapehu, H. C. Field! Mount Egmont, Buchanan, H. C. Field, T. F. C.; Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! Field; Manawatu Gorge, A. Hamilton; Tararua Mountains, W. Townson. South Island: Not uncommon in mountain districts throughout. Campbell Island, Antipodes Island, Kirk. Usually from 1500 to 4000 ft., but descends almost to sea-level in the south of Otago.
Well distinguished from any of the forms of H. tenuifolia by the finely and deeply cut pinnules.
3. H. distans, Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 70, t. 95c.—Rhizome long, rigid, branched, clothed with red-brown linear scales. Stipes 3–9 in. long, slender, flexuous, fragile, red-brown, glossy, naked, minutely muricate. Fronds 6–15 in. long, 3–6 in. broad, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rigid, brownish-green or reddish-brown, 2-pinnate; rhachis slender, red-brown, glabrous or nearly so, scabrous like the stipes. Primary pinnæ 2–3 in. long, about ½ in. broad, opposite or nearly so, distant, spreading at right angles, lanceolate; secondary (pinnules) ¼ in. long, sessile, lanceolate, rigid, deeply pinnatifid. Ultimate segments ovate, spreading, toothed or incised. Sori 2-8 to a pinnule, placed in the lower sinuses. Indusium composed of the inflexed tip of a lobule, small, membranous.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 23; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 362; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 129; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 56; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 85, t. 28, f. 6.
North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: From the North Cape to the south of Otago, not common, usually at low elevations.
Small and slender forms of Polypodium punctatum are easily mistaken for this; but in its usual state it is a smaller and more slender plant, with more distant pinnæ, and the frond is never densely hairy or viscid-pubescent. It is confined co New Zealand.
13. CHEILANTHES, Swartz.
Rhizome short and tufted, or long and creeping. Fronds usually small, erect, 2–3-pinnate; texture subcoriaceous. Veins free, forked, not anastomosing. Sori marginal, terminating the veins, small, rounded or oblong, at first distinct, afterwards more or less confluent. Indusium roundish or oblong, consisting of a more
