1018 FILICES. [Gleichenia. 
branched, more or less clothed with reddish-brown fimbriate scales. 
Stipes smooth, slender, cylindrical, glabrous or more or less densely 
scaly and woolly. Fronds usually repeatedly dichotomous and pro- 
liferous from the lower axils; branches zigzag, spreading, often 
interlaced ; rhachides generally clothed with rusty-red stellate hairs 
often mixed with fimbriate scales, rarely glabrous. Pinne nu- 
merous along the branches, spreading, 4-2 in. long, +,—4 in. broad, 
narrow - linear, uniformly pinnatifid to the base. Segments nu- 
merous, Closely placed, broadly ovate or orbicular, obtuse, adnate by 
a broad base, flat or concave beneath, not cucullate nor pouch-shaped, 
coriaceous or almost membranous, green or glaucous beneath, 
glabrous or the costa more or less woolly and chaffy. Veins 
pinnately branched. Sori solitary in the segments, placed at the 
tip of the exterior veinlet near the upper angle of the segment, of 
2-4 sporangia.—Hook. and Bak. Syn. Ful. 11; Hook. f. Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 347 (excl. var. hecistophylla) ; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 697 ; 
Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 25; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 36, t.2,f.2. G. semi- 
vestita, Lab. Sert. Nov. Cal. 8, t. 11; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 8, t. Qa; 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 5 (excl. var. hecistophylla). G. micro- 
phylla, R. Br. Prodr. 161. G.spelunce, h. Br. Prodr. 160. G. 
punciulata, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 344. G. patens, 
Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 212. 
Nort anp SoutH IsLanps, Stewart Istanp: From the North Cape south- 
wards, plentiful in the North Island, but rare and local to the south of Cook 
Strait. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Waewaekaka; Waewaematuku. 
Common in Australia, also extending to New Caledonia and Malaya. Mr. 
Colenso’s G. patens is an excessively proliferous state with slender almost 
subscandent stems, forming large masses in heated soil near hot springs at 
Tavpo. The fronds are more membranous than usual, but that and its other 
peculiarities are easily accounted for by the exceptional nature of its habitat. 
2. G. dicarpa, &. Br. Prodr. 161.—Very similar to G. coret- 
nata in habit and mode of growth, but smaller, 1-24 ft. high. 
Rhizome slender, wiry, usually clothed with chaffy scales. Stipes 
smooth, slender, glabrous or scaly-hispid. Fronds several times 
dichotomous, usually proliferous; branches spreading in a hori- 
zontal plane, often interlaced; rhachides scaly and hairy or some- 
times almost glabrous. Pinne numerous along the branches, 
spreading, 4-11 in. long, 4-4, in. broad, very narrow-linear, deeply 
and uniformly pinnatifid. Segments numerous, closely placed, 
small, suborbicular, coriaceous, convex above, the margins so much 
recurved beneath that the segment is cucullate or pouch-shaped, 
usually clothed with woolly hairs beneath. Sori one to each seg- 
ment, just visible in the pocket-like cavity of the segment, or con- 
cealed by woolly hairs; sporangia 1-2, rarely more.—Hook. Sp. Ful. 
i. 8, t. lo; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.ii.5; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 348; Benth. 
Fl. Austral. vii. 698; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 12; Thoms. N.Z. 
Ferns, 25; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 37. 
