936 FILICES [Hymenophyllun. 
yellow-green, membranous, glabrous or sparingly silky along the 
rhachis and sometimes on the margins, 2-3-pinnatifid. Stipes 
slender, terete, wingless, glabrous except a tuft of silky hairs at 
the base; main rhachis winged towards the top, wingless else- 
where. Primary pinne often close and overlapping, short, rhom- 
boidal-ovate or flabellate, acuminate; secondary cuneate at the 
base, deeply pinnatifid. Ultimate segments linear, flat, entire. 
Sori small, terminal on the segments, usually on the lateral ones, 
slightly immersed at the base. Indusium orbicular or nearly so, 
2-valved to below the middle; valves usually entire.—Hook. Sp. 
Ful. i. 111; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 11.15; Handb. N.Z. Hiwaeo: 
Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 61; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 705; Thoms. 
N.Z. Ferns, 42; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 57, t.19,f.6. H. nitens, R. Br. 
Prodr. 159; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 94; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 236 ; 
Raoul, Choix, 39. 
NortH anD SoutH ISLANDS, STEWART ISLAND, CHATHAM ISLANDS, AUCK- 
LAND Istanps: Not uncommon in woods throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. 
Also in Tasmania and south-eastern Australia, and reported from Sumatra 
and the Philippine Islands. Some varieties approach very closely to narrow- 
fronded forms of H. demisswm, but in its ordinary state it cannot be easily 
confounded with any other. 
11. H. rufescens, 7’. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x1. (1879) 457, 
t. 19a.—Very delicate, forming mats on the trunks of trees or on the 
perpendicular faces of shaded rocks. Rhizome very slender, almost 
filiform, branched, creeping, sparingly clothed with soft spreading 
hairs. Stipes much longer than the frond proper, 1—2in., capillary, 
wingless, clothed when young with long flexuous hairs. Fronds 
34-14 in. long, +-3in. broad at the base, deltoid, delicately mem- 
branous and pellucid, 2-pinnatifid; rhachis winged almost to the 
base, and with the veins and occasionally the surfaces of the frond 
more or less covered with long flexuous silky hairs. Pinne 3-4 pairs, 
close, overlapping, cuneate-rhomboid or the lowest almost flabel- 
late, deeply pinnatifid or lobed. Segments linear, obtuse, flat, quite 
entire. Sori terminating the segments, slightly immersed at the 
base. Jndusium ovate-orbicular, 2-valved to the base; valves 
entire or slightly toothed, often ciliate-—Bak. in Annals of Bot. v. 
(1890-91) 192; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 48; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 63, t. 15, 
£16; 
NortH Isnanp: Summit of Te Aroha Mountain, Adams! T. F’. C.; Oroua 
River (Ruahine Range), H. C. Field! Mount Egmont Ranges, 7. #. C. SoutH 
Istanp: Nelson—Mount Arthur Plateau, 7’. #. C.; Takaka Valley, Kingsley ; 
Mount Rochfort, Rev. F. J. Spencer! Westland—Okarito, A. Hanulton ! 
Stewart Isnanp: Rakiahua, A. Hamilton, P. Goyer. 1000-3500 ft. 
Nearest to H. flabellatum, some mountain forms of which approach it very 
closely, but separated by the much longer capillary stipes, shorter, broader, and 
more delicate fronds, and by the copious hairs. H. subtilissimum differs in the 
larger size, the shape of the frond, and in the stellate tomentum. 
