352 
New Zealand Ferns 
XXVI. SCHIZAEA 
SCHIZAEA (schizo, to divide — the split frond). 
A genus of about 18 species, with 3 species and 1 va- 
riety in New Zealand. Small, grass-like plants, the seeds 
clustered together in a tuft terminating the frond. 
S. BIFIDA 
(145) S.fistulosa (hollow like a rush). More like a 
very slender reed than a fern; it has no leaves whatever, 
merely a thin stalk topped by a bunch of seeds. 
Description . — Root short, thick, creeping. Fronds rigid, very 
erect, clothed with chestnut-brown scales, numerous towards the 
end of the root, not distinct from the stalk, dark-brown below, 
greenish-brown above, 4 to 12 inches long by l-40th inch broad, 
thread-like. Seed tufts terminating the frond, gin. to 1 inch long 
by gin. to gin. broad. Seeds in two closely-placed rows, covering 
the whole under surface. 
Not uncommon in barren clay soils throughout the North 
Island; apparently rare and local south of Cook Strait. Sea-level 
to 4,000 feet. 
This is so unlike a fern, such a small, insignificant, 
abnormal-looking plant, that it is apt to be overlooked. 
I have found it growing in short manuka on wet hungry 
land. It is found also in Australia, Tasmania, New 
Caledonia, Madagascar, Chili, and the Falkland Islands. 
