Pellea.| FILICES. 969 
Fil. 151; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 58; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 88, t. 18, f. 4. 
Pieris faleata, A. Br. Prodr. 154; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 24; 
Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 729. BP. seticaulis, Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 207. 
Platyloma faleatum, J. Sm. 
Kermapec Istanps: MacGillivray, 7. #.C. Norra Istanp: Auckland— 
In various localities from Whangaroa to the Waikato River, but rare and 
Jocal. SoutH Istanp : Nelson—Dun Mountain, Potts; near Nelson, D. Grant ; 
Graham River, 7’. F.C. 
Extends to Australia and Tasmania, the Malay Archipelago, and India. All 
the New Zealand specimens that I have sean have shorter and broader pinne 
than the typical state, and approach P. rotwndifolia so closely as to make it 
probable that the two species are forms of one plant. 
2. P. rotundifolia, Hook. Sp. Fil. 1. 136.—Habit of P. falcata, 
but smaller and more slender, and fronds often decumbent. 
Rhizome long, rigid, wiry, creeping, clothed with appressed scales. 
Stipes 3-6 in. long, dark red-brown, densely pubescent and scaly. 
Fronds 6—14 in. long, 3-14 in. broad, linear, simply pinnate; rhachis 
bristly and scaly throughout. Pinnz 10-30 on each side, alternate, 
petiolate or the upper sessile, quite entire, 4-%in. long, +-4in. 
broad, variable in shape, oblong or oblong-ovate to orbicular, 
obtuse or mucronate at the tip, rounded or obliquely truncate at 
the base, glabrous or nearly so, coriaceous; veins concealed. Sori 
forming broad marginal lines on both the upper and lower edges of 
the pinne, but not so continuous as in P. falcata. Indusia very 
numerous, membranous, involute when young, but soon reflexed 
and often concealed by the sporangia.—Fil. Hzot. t. 48; Hook. f. 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 363; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 151; Thoms. 
N.Z. Ferns, 59; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 89, t. 14, f. 2. Pteris rotundi- 
folia, Forst. Prodr. n. 420; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 78; A. Cunn. 
Precur. nu. 198; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Ic. Plant, 422; Benth. 
Fl. Austral. vu. 730. Allosurus rotundifolius, Kunze in Linnea, 
xxvill. 219. Platyloma rotundifolium, J. Sm. 
NortH AND SoutH IsLaANDSs, CHATHAM IsLANDS: From the North Cape to 
Foveaux Strait, not uncommon in dry woods. Sea-level to 2000 ft. 
Also in Norfolk Island; and Bentham refers a Queensland plant to the 
same species. 
15. PTERIS, Linn. 
Rhizome usually creeping. Fronds of very various habit, gene- 
rally compound, often of large size. Veins free or more or less 
anastomosing. Sori marginal, linear, continuous, placed on a 
slender connecting-vein (receptacle) running along the edge of the 
frond and joining the tips of the transverse veinlets. Indusium 
long, narrow, continuous, composed of the more or less modified and 
membranous margin of the frond, at first involute over the sori, 
at length usually spreading and exposing the sporangia. Sporangia 
stalked, bursting transversely, girt by an incomplete vertical ring. 
