154 
New Zealand Ferns 
(58) C. Sieberi (Herr Sieber). A small species, 
growing rigidly upright; the prim, narrow fronds rarely 
exceeding an inch in width. Plentiful on the scoria fields 
about Auckland — even upon the cinder slopes of Rangi- 
toto. 
Description. — Root short, stout, creeping, clothed with chest- 
nut-brown scales. Stalks 3 to 9 inches long, erect, rigid, wiry, 
bright chestnut-brown, polished. Fronds densely tufted, 3 to 9 
inches long by fin. to If- inches broad, dark-green, smooth. Mid- 
rib smooth and glossy. Seeds round the margins of the leaflets, 
which curve over in indented folds. 
North and South Islands, abundant in rocky places. Sea-level 
to 2,500 feet. 
Excepting Nothoclaena distans, which it closely resembles, 
this quaint little species is quite unlike any other fern in New 
Zealand. It grows on summits of rocks exposed to the blazing 
sun — the very last place one would look for a fern. The trim 
fronds, standing in serried ranks on their glossy brown stalks, 
have the appearance of miniature pine forests. 
According to Mr. Cheeseman this fern is often confused 
with Nothoclaena distans; so far as I am concerned he might 
have said “generally confused.” Until I grew the plants side by 
side I was always in doubt. 
The receptacle for the seeds by which the genus is deter- 
mined is the most radical difference, but as this requires the aid 
of a magnifying glass or very sharp eyes, one needs a readier 
mode of discrimination. The unrolling fronds of C. Sieberi are 
of a fresh green, almost naked; those of N. distans are so cov- 
ered with white hairs as to look like little tufts of cotton wool. 
In N. distans the leaflets are broader and blunter, and the whole 
plant has a woolly appearance. 
Found also in Australia, New Caledonia, and the Isle of 
Pines. 
