Nothochlena. | FILICES. 1015 
confluent into a continuous or interrupted marginal line, often 
partly concealed by the slightly inflexed margin of the frond, but 
with no true indusium. Sporangia stalked, bursting transversely, 
girt by an incomplete vertical ring. 
A genus of between 30 and 40 species, widely dispersed through the tropical 
and warm temperate regions of both hemispheres, It hardly differs from Chei- 
lanthes, except in the recurved margin of the frond not being distinctly modified 
into an indusium. The single New Zealand species is also found in Australia, 
Norfolk Island, and New Caledonia. 
1. N. distans, R. Br. Prodr. 146.—Rhizome short, stout, sub- 
erect or prostrate, clothed with the bases of the old stipites and 
with ferruginous linear scales. Stipes 1—4 in. long, stiff, wiry, erect, 
dark chestnut-brown, more or less clothed with subulate-lanceolate 
scales. Fronds numerous, tufted at the top of the rhizome, 3-6in. 
long without the stipes, $-lin. broad, linear-oblong, erect, rigid, 
subcoriaceous, sparingly villous or hairy above, beneath densely 
covered with long linear-subulate ferruginous scales, 2-pinnate. 
Primary pinne stipitate, opposite or nearly so, the lower remote, 
4-2in. long, ovate-deltoid, pinnate at the base, pinnatifid above. 
Pinnules few, seldom more than 2-3 pairs, ovate-oblong, obtuse, the 
lowest pinnatifid at the base; margins recurved. Sori forming a 
continuous line round the margin.—Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 980; Sp. 
Fil. v. 114; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1. 46; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 383; 
Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 372; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 774; Thoms. 
N.Z. Ferns, 91; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 148, t. 16, f. 3. 
NortH Isuanp: Rocky places from the Bay of Islands to Cook Strait, local. 
Soutu Isntanp: Near Nelson, 7. #’. C. Banks Peninsula and other localities 
in Canterbury, Armstrong, T. H. Potts. Sea-level to 2500 ft. 
Often confused with Cheilanthes Sieberi, of which it has the habit and 
general appearance; but a smaller plant, with the frond conspicuously shaggy 
and scaly beneath. 
24. GYMNOGRAMME, Desv. 
Rhizome short and tufted or long and creeping. Fronds very 
various, small or large, pinnate or 2-3-pinnate, rarely simple. 
Veins simple or forked, or more or less copiously anastomosing. 
Sori placed on the veins on the under-surface of the fronds, oblong 
or linear, often elongated, simple or forked. Indusium not de- 
veloped. Sporangia stalked, bursting transversely, surrounded by 
an incomplete vertical ring. 
As defined above, this isa heterogeneous assemblage of over 100 species, 
differing greatly from one another in habit, venation, and the arrangement of 
the sori, and often split up by authors into several small genera. It is widely 
spread in most tropical countries, but comparatively few species reach the tem- 
perate zones. 
Perennial. Fronds pinnate or 2-pinnatifid, subcoriaceous, 
densely clothed with ferruginous woolly hairs .. 1. G. rutefolia. 
Annual. Fronds 2-3-pinnate, thin and membranous, quite 
glabrous .. Gu ac a .. 2. G. leptophylia. 
