blackish-green or lurid-green, brittle when dry, glabrous or the margins and under-surface more or less clothed with short rufous hairs, lyrate-pinnatifid, pinnate at the base; rhachis usually densely pubescent. Pinnæ 4–8 pairs, unequal in size; the terminal one much the largest, 1–2 in. long, oblong, obtuse, irregularly lobed or sinuate; the lateral ¼–¾ in. long, oblong to orbictilar-oblong, irregularly sinuate, the lowest pair larger than those immediately above, and often stipitate and deflexed. Fertile fronds few, erect, pinnate; pinnæ few, distant, narrow-linear, apiculate, the terminal one elongated, the lateral much shorter.—Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 960; Sp. Fil. iii. 35; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 31; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 369; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fl. 181; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 69; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 110, t. 25, i. 4, 4a. Polybotrya nana, Fèe. Acrost. t. 38, f. 1. Blechnum nigrum, Mett.
North Island: Dark gloomy forests from Whangarei southwards, not common. South Island: Nelson—Collingwood, D. Grant; Takaka and West Wanganui, Kingsley. Westland—Abundant at low elevations, Enys! A. Hamilton! J. W. Brame! &c. Otago—Milford Sound, Bligh's Sound, Lyall, Hector and Buchanan. Sea-level to 3000 ft.
Easily recognised by the enlarged terminal portion of the frond, which is often only shallowly lobed, while the lower pinnæ are usually distinct from one another. The surface of the frond is often overgrown with mosses or hepatiæ, in the same manner as in Trichomanes elongatum.
12. L. fluviatilis, Spreng. Syst. Veg. iv. 65.—Rhizome stout, suberect, often woody, densely clothed with the bases of the old stipites and with chestnut-brown subulate scales. Stipes very short, densely scaly. Sterile fronds very numerous, forming a broad spreading crown at the top of the rhizome, 1–2½ ft. high, ¾–1½ in. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate, submembranous, pale brownish-green, pinnate throughout; rhachis densely clothed with spreading subulate scales. Pinnæ very numerous, 20–50 pairs, ½–¾ in. long, ¼–⅓ in. broad, oblong to orbicular-oblong, obtuse, not decurrent, the lower more remote and often shortly stipitate, the upper sessile, the uppermost usually adnate; margins thin, sinuate or denticulate. Fertile fronds narrow-linear, erect; pinnæ ⅓–⅔ in. long, ⅛ in. broad, linear, obtuse, erecto-patent.—Hook. Sp. Fil. iii, 34; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 28; Fl. Tasm. ii. 142, t. 167; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 366; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 181; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 736; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 69; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 109, t, 27, f, 2, 2a. L. rotundifolia, Raoul, Choix, 9, t. 23 , Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 19. Stegania fluviatilis, R. Br. Prodr. 152. Blechnum fluviatile, Mett.
North and South Islands, Chatham Islands, Stewart Island: From Hokianga and Whangaroa southwards, not uncommon in damp hilly forests. Sea-level to 2500 ft.
Also in Victoria and Tasmania. A crested form is occasionally seen, and has been described by Mr. Colenso as var. ramosa (Trans. N,Z. Inst. xx. 225).
