Gleichenia. | FILICES. 1021 
Norra Istanp: Auckland—In heated soil near hot springs ; Rotoma- 
hana, Captain G. Mair! Kirk! (in this locality destroyed by the eruption of 
Tarawera in 1886) ; Otumakokori and Orakeikorako, Kirk! T. F. C.; Kara- 
piti, Hochstetter; Wairakei, Norton! Field, T. F. C.; hot springs near Matata, 
Captain G. Marr. Sea-level to 1600 ft. 
Almost universal in tropical and subtropical countries. Forster, in his 
«*Esculent Plants” (p. 75), recorded it as a native of New Zealand, and 
stated that the roots were eaten by the Natives; but as he only collected 
in the South Island it is extremely improbable that he ever saw it in New 
Zealand, and there is no other record of the roots being eaten. 
26. SCHIZALA, Smith. 
Rhizome short, thick, creeping. Stipes rigid, wiry, erect. 
Fronds simple or forked or dichotomously branched, flat or terete, 
very narrow, without expanded laminz. Sori on the under-suriace 
of fertile segments terminating the frond or its branches, each seg- 
ment consisting of a number of crowded linear pinne, those of the 
opposite sides being usually applied to one another so as to conceal 
the under -surface. Sporangia ovoid, sessile, splitting vertically, 
crowned by a complete transverse ring, arranged in 2 or rarely 
4 rows on the under-surface oi the pinne of the fertile segments. 
A small genus of about 18 species, dispersed through the tropical or warm 
temperate regions of boch hemispheres. Two of the New Zealand species are 
widely distributed ; the third extends to Australia alone. 
Fronds smooth, terete or nearly so, undivided .. 2. divSe justiulosa. 
Fronds scabrous, terete or obscurely compressed, forked or 
rarely twice-forked .. Se ac ae .. 2. S. bifida. 
Fronds smooth, compressed, repeatedly dichotomously 
forked, flabellate xe 5c a .. 3. S. dichotoma. 
1. S. fistulosa, Labill. Pl. Nov. Holl. ii. 103, t. 250.—Rhi- 
zome’ short, thick, creeping, clothed with dark chestnut-brown 
linear scales. Fronds numerous towards the end of the rhizome, 
not distinct from the stipes, dark-brown below, greenish-brown 
above, 4-12 in. long, #,in. broad, filiform, erect or flexuous, rigid, 
wiry, terete, grooved down the face, unbranched. Fertile segment 
terminating the frond, 4-1 in. long, erect or suberect, consisting of 
10-20 closely placed pinnz on each side; pinne all pointing in one 
direction, 41 in. long, linear, incurved at the tip; margins denticu- 
late or fringed. Sporangia in 2 closely placed rows, covering the 
whole of the under-surface.— Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 749; Hook. 
and Bak. Syn. Fil. 429; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 693; Thoms. N.Z. 
Ferns, 95; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 150, t. 14, f. 5. S. propinqua, 
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 168. 
Var. australis, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 749.—Smaller, 1-3in. high; 
rhizome stouter in proportion. Fertile segment }-}in. long, of 6-8 pairs of 
pinne.—S. australis, Gaud. Fl. Ins. Mal.98; Hook. f. Fl. Antarct.i.111; Hook. 
and Bak. Syn. Fil. 428; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 95. 8. palmata, Homb. and Jacq. 
Voy. au Pole Sud, Crypt. t. 4, f. 2. 
