348 
I. FILICES. 
[ Gleichenia . 
the following, green or glaucous below, glabrous or covered below with long 
weak hairs ; rachis and costa often chatty when young, glabrate when old. 
Capsules 1-4. — Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 3, t. 2 A; G. microphylla, Br. 
Var. 0. hecistophylla. More chaffy ; rachis often woolly ; lobules of frond much in- 
curved. — G. hecistophylla, A. Cunn. ; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 4. t. 2 B. 
Abundaut throughout the Northern and Middle Islands, Banks and Solander, etc. 
Chatham Island, Bieffenbach. Equally abundant in Australia, Tasmania, New Caledonia, 
and some of the Malayan and Pacific Islands. Youug specimens of this have been sent from 
New Zealand as G. speluncce, Br. Mrs. Jones observes that the natives affirm that this 
Fern is the first to appear after clearing the forest, and hence call it Matua Rarauhe (father 
of Ferns). . 
2. G. dicarpa, Br. ; — FI. A. Z. ii. 5. Rhizome slender, chaffy, and 
woolly. Fronds erect, of the same habit and character as G. circinata, but 
usually woolly, especially at the nodes, and the ultimate segments of the 
frond are more coriaceous and pouch-shaped, being very convex above, and 
presenting a small opening below, within which the capsules are seen. — Hook. 
Sp. Fil. i. 3. t. 1 C ; Fil. Exot. t. 40. 
Var. 0. alpina. Smaller, 3-10 in. high, stouter in proportion, more densely woolly and 
chaffy. — G. alpina, Br. ; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 2. 
Northern Island : var. 0, Lake Taupo and mountainous districts of the interior, 
Colenso. Middle Island : var. a aud 0, probably common throughout to Foveaux Straits, 
Lyall. 
3. G. Cunninghamii, Ileivard ; — FI. N. Z. ii. 6. t. 71. Rhizome 
stout, creeping. Fronds stout, erect, 1-2 ft. high, stiff, dichotomously and 
often proliferously branched. Stipes stout, pale, smooth, naked or covered 
with membranous bullate scales that extend to the rachis and costa ; branches 
stout, curving, 6-18 in. long, flabellate, forked, usually woolly at the base, 
pinnate below, pinnatifid above, tips often caudate ; pinnules £-1 in. broad, 
decurrent, linear, falcate, very coriaceous, -§■- § in. long, A- £ broad, flat or 
with the margins recurved, quite entire, often glaucous and pilose below. Cap- 
sules 2-6, usually exposed. — Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 6. t. 6 B. 
Common throughout the Northern Island, Cunningham, etc. Middle Island : Can- 
terbury, Travers. Stewart’s Island, Lyall. 
4. G. flabellata, Br.; — FI. N. Z. ii. 6. Habit of G. Cunninghamii, 
but taller, much more membranous, with often numerous tiers or whorls of 
erect or ascending branches ; stipes, rachis, and branches without scales ; 
pinnules glabrous or rarely pubescent below, serrulate towards the tip, green 
on both surfaces. — Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 6 ; Fil. Exot. t. 71. 
Northern Island : in shady woods, Bay of Islands, A. Cunningham, etc. Also a native 
of New Caledonia, Australia, aud Tasmania. 
G. Hermanni , Br. ( Polypodium dichotomum, Forst.), a common tropical plant, is erro- 
neously introduced by Forster amongst his New' Zealand plants, as a native of arid moun- 
tains. In his ‘ Esculent Plants ’ he states that the roots are roasted, pounded, and eaten 
by the natives; the plant does not exist in his or in any other New Zealand Herbarium. 
2- CYATHEA, Smith. 
Tree-ferns in New Zealand. Fronds very large, 2- or 3-pinnate. Sori 
