274 



Genus XXXVI. Gletchenia, Smith. — Fronds with distant opposite 

 lateral pinna?, which spread at a wide angle from the stiflt erect and 

 often subscandent stems ; sori punctifoiTn, sup erficial, medial on rhe 

 Teinlets : spca-angia 3-12 (rarely more) to a group ; veins forked, free ; 

 pinnce in most eases repeatedly forked and fiabelliform, having scaly 

 or leafy auxiliary buds ; pinnulce or ultimate branches pectinate. 



A well marked group of plants, of singular habit and communal 

 proclivities, diliused veiy abundantly throughout the country from 

 the lowest to the highest elevations, covering roadside-banks and ex- 

 tensive tracts of open land and not very densely shaded forest, where 

 they form entangled and hardly penetrable thickets, and in open situa- 

 tions monopolise the entire possession of the ground. In all the spe- 

 cies the root>tock is slender, wide-extending and branched, and runs 

 under the sui'face of the soil, the fronds arising at intervals on its 

 axis. They have slender but stifi' more or less glossy stems about as 

 thick as a quill, from one or two to several feet long, to the upper part 

 of which the branches or pinnae, developed, as before said, in opposite 

 pairs, are confined. In most of the species here included the sori often 

 present a diffused character, from the varying number of capsules to 

 each 



SpLi..: e::oh sorus. 



Pin: lorked. 



FiLnds censeiy tomentose beneath, 



1. G. pubescens 



Fronds paleaceous. 



2. G. furcata. 



3. G. Matthewsii. 



Pinnie not dichotomous, but regularly pinnatiform in branching, 



4. G. Bancroftii. 



Sporangia 12 or less in a sorus : rachises zigzag. 



5. G, dichotoma. 



6. G. pectinata. 



1. G. pube-sct/i-s, H. B. K. — Stipites and rachises strong deciduously 



furfuraceous or paleaceous : pinnae in 1-4 distinct pairs, dicho- 

 tomous, the p-- petioles 2-5 in. L, scariously margined, 

 with a few short .;f-segments at the base on the inner side only 



reaching a ' . uii way up, or entirely devoid of any, deciduously 

 furfuraceous _ . ^ . _:;ceous ; secondary petioles Kned with leaf-segments 



throughout, or a few absent only on the outer side ; pinnulte pectinate, 

 f - 2 ft. L, H - 3 in. w., broadly divaricating, rigid, gradually tapeiing 

 outwards : ultimate segments linear, f - 1^ in. 1. 1-2 li. br., obtuse or 

 acute, expanded and contiguous at the base ; the upperside naked 

 or deciduously furiuraceous, especially on the ccstules, beneath very 

 densely coated with a thick layer of rusty or grayish feltKke tomentum, 

 the costules naked or paleaceous ; the margins fiat or refiexed ; veins 

 once forked : soii copious; sj^orangia 3 - 5 in a group, immersed and 

 more or less concealed in the tomentum. — Mertensia ijivnersa, Klf. 

 ferruginea, Desv. 



General throughout the country', forming thickets in open and half 

 open situations from sea-level up to 5,000 or 6,000 ft. altitude. 



