Nephrolepis. | FILICES. 1007 
sometimes bearing small scaly tubers. Stipes short, 1-4 in. long, 
red-brown, glossy, more or less clothed with deciduous linear scales. 
Fronds numerous, tufted, 1-3ft. long, 14-2in. broad, linear- 
lanceolate, acuminate, pale-green, membranous, pinnate; rhachis 
usually shaggy with linear flexuose scales. Pinne very numerous, 
close-set, often imbricated, horizontal, $-lin. long, 1-4in. broad, 
oblong or linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, cordate at the base, 
the upper edge distinctly auricled, the lower shorter and rounded; 
margins crenate-toothed ; the lower pinne shorter and broader and 
sterile. Soriin two rows on the pinne, rather nearer the margin 
than the midrib. Indusium reniform, firm, membranous.—Thoms. 
N.Z. Ferns, 85; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 134, t. 20, f. 3. N. tuberosa, 
Presi; Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 151; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 879. 
N. flexuosa, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 231. Aspidium 
cordifolium, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 45; Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. 754. 
Norry Isuanp: Auckland—Thermal-springs district, in localities heated 
by warm water; Otumakokori Stream (near Waiotapu), Captain G. Mair! 
Kirk! T. F. C.; Wairakei, Karapiti, and other localities at Taupo, Hochstetter, 
C. J. Norton! T. F.C. 
An abundant tropical fern, extending northwards to Japan and southwards 
to New Zealand. 
2. N. exaltata, Schott; Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 152.— Rhizome 
short, indistinct, emitting numerous long wiry creeping stolons. 
Stipes 3-9in. long, stout, erect, deciduously scaly. Fronds nu- 
merous, 1-3 ft. long, 4-5 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, rather coria- 
ceous, pinnate; rhachis and cost and sometimes the under-surface 
of the pinne more or less scaly-tomentose or woolly. Pinne nu- 
merous, close-set, horizontally spreading, 14—3 in. long, $—2 in. broad, 
lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute, broadly obliquely truncate 
or subcordate at the base, the upper edge slightly auricled, the lower 
rounded; margins crenate-serrate. Sori close to the margin, 
numerous, rather small. Indusium firm, almost coriaceous, dis- 
tinctly reniform.—Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 301; Cheesem. in 
Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 178. Aspidium exaltatum, Swartz, 
Syn. Fil. 45; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 754. 
KeRMADEC IsnaAnpDs: Sunday Island, sandy flats in Denham Bay, not seem 
elsewhere, 7’. F’. C. 
An abundant tropical fern all round the world. 
22, POLYPODIUM, Linn. 
Rhizome short and suberect, or long and creeping. Stipes 
jointed on the rhizome or continuous with it. Fronds very various 
in size, shape, and cutting, simple or pinnate or 2-4-pinnate. Veins 
free or anastomosing. Sori globose or nearly so, placed on the back 
of the frond, either at the tip of a vein or on the back of one. 
Indusium wanting. Sporangia stalked, surrounded by an incom- 
plete vertical ring, bursting transversely. 
