144 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [ Filices. 
Has. Abundant in damp forests, etc.— (v. v.) 
DisrgrB. South-eastern Australia, New Zealand. 
It is generally easy to distinguish this from L. lanceolata by the red colour of the under surface of the frond, 
but this is not always the case, either in New Zealand or in Australian and Tasmanian specimens. Labillardiere 
hence made a new species of the Tasmanian, which has been retained by Mr. Brown; but I find the colour to 
vary from green to red-brown, and there is no other character whereby to separate them.— Fonds tufted on the 
top of a very short, woody, erect, thick caudex, forming an elegant crown, 1-3 feet long, narrow, linear-lanceolate, 
perfectly glabrous, rather coriaceous, pinnatifid. Pinne very numerous, close, and placed at right angles to the 
rachis, with a narrow slit between the contiguous pairs, straight, linear-oblong or lanceolate, blunt, sharp, or acu- 
minate, 13-4 inches long, obscurely serrate or quite entire; lowest smaller, sometimes distant. Fertile fronds 
pinnate or pinnatifid; pinnz spreading, stout, linear, dilated, adnate, or contracted and almost stipitate at the 
base; lower pinnz often quite barren, and like those of the barren frond. Costa and rachis quite smooth, the latter 
very stout, often black, deeply channelled in front. Stipes short, stout, scaly at the base. 
7. Lomaria alpina (Spr. Syst. Veg. iv. 62) ; glaberrima, fronde sterili stipitata anguste lineari pro- 
funde pinnatifida v. pinnata, pinnis approximatis basi lata sessilibus oblongis obtusis coriaceis inferioribus 
minoribus, costa tenui, rachi valida, fronde fertili elongata sterilibus longiore pinnata, pinnis lineari- 
oblongis obtusis divaricatis curvis, infimis parvis remotis sterilibus, stipite valido nudo v. sparse squamato, 
rhizomate ceespitoso repente squamoso.—477. Antarct. p. 392. t. 150; Fl. N. Zeal. ìi. p. 30; Hook. Fil. 
Exot. t. 32. L. polypodioides, Gaud. in Freyc. Voy. Bot. 374. L. Antarctica, Carm. Fl. Ins. Trist. 
d Acunha in Linn. Trans. xii. 512. L. linearis, Col. in Tasm. Phil. Journ. ii. p. 176. Stegania alpina, 
Br. Prodr. 152. (Gunn, 21, 1523.) : 
Has. Abundant in boggy places, and on the tops of all the mountains.—(v. v.) 
Disrris. Mountains of Victoria, New Zealand, South Chili, Fuegia, and the Antarctic Islands. 
(Cultivated in England.) 
A small, coriaceous species, with creeping rhizome and very cespitose narrow fronds, of which the fertile are 
always much the longest; weak, elongated specimens have less coriaceous fronds, with obscurely sinuate pinnules. 
—Fronds 2 inches to 2 feet high, with long stipes, linear, 4-4 inch broad, narrowed above and below, deeply pin- 
natifid or pinnate. Pinne twenty to fifty pairs, very close together, linear-oblong, blunt, sessile on very broad 
bases. Fertile fronds pinnate; pinne spreading, sometimes deflexed, remote, linear, blunt, curving upwards, rarely 
straight and short; lowest remote, small, rounded, often without sori. Involucres distinct, scarious. Rachis and 
stipes stout, smooth, sometimes with a few palee. Rhizome paleaceous. 
Gen. XIII. ASPLENIUM, Z. 
Sori lineares, sparsi, superficie (rarius margine) frondis, venis paralleli. Znvodwerum e vena lateraliter 
ortum ducens, margine superiore libero. 
One of the largest and most widely diffused genera of Ferns, of which the species also have an extensive geo- 
graphical distribution, and are extremely variable. The genus is distinguished by bearing on the back of the frond 
linear sori, covered with a linear membranous involucre Involucre attached lengthwise to a veinlet (with which the 
sori are parallel), opening lengthwise and inwards; sometimes the fronds are cut or divided between every veinlet, 
when the sori become marginal, and the involucres appear to open outwards, but if the whole pinna be carefully 
regarded, it will be seen that the involucre really opens towards its costa. (Name from o, privative, and eA, the 
spleen ; in allusion to some supposed medicinal qualities.) 
