or less interrupted line within the margin of the frond and parallel to it, placed at the apex of 2 or more veins and uniting them. Indusium apparently double, and 2-valved, opening outwards; upper valve formed of the more or less altered margin of the frond; lower valve thin, membranous, continuous. Sporangia numerous, stalked, bursting transversely; ring vertical, incomplete.
Understood in the sense of the "Synopsis Filicum," this is a genus of about 60 species, mainly found in the tropics of both hemispheres. Two of the New Zealand species extend to Australia and Tasmania, one of them, reaching New Caledonia as well, the remaining one is endemic.
| * Eulindsaya. Pinnæ unilateral. | |
| Fronds linear, simply pinnate; pinnæ small, flabellate | 1. L. linearis. |
| ** Isoloma. Pinnæ equilateral. | |
| Fronds 2–3-pinnatifid, dark-green, oblong-lanceolate, broadest at the base; ultimate segments obovate, rounded at the tip | 2. L. trichomanoides. |
| Fronds 2–3-pinnatifid, pale-green, lanceolate, not broadest at the base; ultimate segments linear-cuneate, truncate at the tip | 3. L. viridis. |
1. L. linearis, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 118, 318, t. 3.—Rhizome slender, creeping, clothed with yellowish-brown scales. Stipes 2–9 in. long, slender, flexuous, wiry, dark red-brown, smooth and shining. Fronds 3–8 in. long, about ½ in. broad, narrow-linear, membranous, pinnate; barren ones shorter and broader than the fertile, often prostrate; fertile always erect; rhachis naked, glossy. Pinnæ of the fertile fronds ¼–½ in. long, flabellate or cuneate, sessile or nearly so, not lobed or very indistinctly so, revolute when dry. Sori forming a continuous line along the upper edge. Indusium broad, membranous; both valves minutely and irregularly laciniate. Pinnæ of the barren fronds ¼–½ in. long or more, deeply lobed or incised.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 85; A. Cuun. Precur. n. 213; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 206; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 19; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 359; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 104; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 719; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 51; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 77, t. 19, f. 4, 4a. L. trilobata. Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 345.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: From the North Cape southwards, usually on clay hills or in cold swampy soils, most plentiful to the north of the East Cape, rare and local in the South Island. Sea-level to 2000 ft.
Also found throughout the whole of eastern Australia and Tasmania, in Norfolk Island, and in New Caledonia. Mr. Colenso's L. trilobata, which appears to be the most abundant state in New Zealand, only differs in the pinnæ of the barren frond being rather more deeply lobed than usual.
2. L. trichomanoides, Dryand. in Trans. Linn. Soc. iii. (1797) 43, t. 11.—Rhizome creeping, slender, clothed with reddish-brown
