erect, pale-green, quite glabrous, pinnate or bipinnate. Pinnæ remote or rather close, 2–10 in. long, ¼–¾ in. broad, in the pendulous varieties narrow-linear to lanceolate, but in the small erect forms often much broader, acuminate or caudate, usually cut down to a narrowly winged rhachis into erecio-patent straight or incurved linear-oblong obtuse or acute lobes ¼–⅔ in. long; or more rarely the pinnæ are again pinnate at the base, with the secondary divisions lobed or pinnatifid. Veins indistinct, a single one to each lobe. Sori oblong, usually on the margins of the lobes, rarely on the disc of the pinnæ.—Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 205; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 35; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 374; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 222; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 749; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 76; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 123, t. 12, f. 2. A. heterophyllum, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 74. Cœnopteris flaccida, Thunb. Nov. Act. Petrop. ix. 158; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 194; Raoul, Choix, 38. C. novæ-zealandiæ. Spreng. Crypt. 115; Raoul, Choix, 38. Darea flaccida, Willd. Sp. Plant. v. 296.
Var. Shuttleworthianum.—Fronds broader and much more compound, 1–2 ft. long, 4–10 in. broad, ovate-oblong, acuminate, very coriaceous, dark-green, 3–4-pinnatifid; ultimate segments linear-spathulate; sori short, oblong, quite marginal.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 374. A. Shuttleworthianum, Kunze in Schkr. Fil. Suppl. 26, t. 14; Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 210.
Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands, Auckland Islands: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Var. Shuttleworthianum: Kermadec Islands, abundant, MacGillivray, T. F. C.
Also found in Australia and Tasmania, in several of the Pacific islands, and said to have been gathered in South Africa. In New Zealand it varies excessively, the varieties depending to a large extent on the nature of their habitat, specimens growing on trees in damp forests being long and narrow and pendulous, while those found on exposed rocks are broad, rigid, and erect. Sir J. D. Hooker makes 5 varieties in the Handbook, exclusive of var. Shuttleworthianum, but they are so intimately connected by intermediate forms that it is difficult to provide them with satisfactory definitions.
11. A. umbrosum, J. Sm. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iv. (1845) 174.—Rhizome short, stout. Stipes 1–2 ft. long, stout, erect, scaly towards the base, smooth and naked above, brownish-green. Fronds variable in size, 1–4 ft. long without the stipes, 9 in. to 3 ft. broad, broadly ovate or deltoid, spreading, often drooping towards the tip, pale-green, membranous, flaccid, 2–3-pinnate; rhachis slender, flexuous, naked. Primary pinnæ rather distant, 6–18 in. long, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, acute or acuminate; secondary 1–2 in. long, lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid or again pinnate. Ultimate segments ¼–½ in. long, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute, sessile and decurrent, usually deeply incisocrenate; veins pinnate, simple or forked. Sori copious, usually about 5–6 to each pinnule, short, oblong. Indusium large, tumid, membranous.—Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 229; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 749; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 77; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 125, t. 5, f. 2. A. australe, Brack. Fil. U.S. Expl.
