384 
I. F1LICES. 
[ Todea . 
surface of the lower pinnae of each branch of the frond, inserted on the veins, 
large, subglobose. Capsules large, shortly stipitate, subglobose, vertically 
2-valved, with a short transverse, lateral or subterminal, transversely striate 
areola. Spores oblong, with a dark nucleus. Involucre 0. 
The following is the only species, but the genus should perhaps he united with Osmunda ; 
it differs from Leptopteris in the coriaceous fronds. 
1. T. africana, Willdenow. Fronds 4-8 ft. high, very coriaceous, 
2-pinnate ; quite glabrous, oblong-lanceolate ; stipes and rachis very stout, 
pale brown, quite smooth and glabrous ; primary branches linear, a span and 
more long ; pinnules alternate on the branches, narrow, linear-oblong or 
lanceolate, acute or acuminate, crenate or serrate, f-l-£ in. long, sessile by a 
broad, often decurrent base. — FI. Tasman, t. 168. 
Northern Island: Mount Carmel, Jolliffe ; Hokianga (Mrs. Jones). Also a native 
of Australia, Tasmania, and South Africa. 
26. LEPTOPTERIS, Presl. 
Fronds erect, membranous, pellucid, deep green, 2- or 3-pinnate. Capsules 
scarcely collected into sori, scattered over the under- surface of the pinnae, 
upon the veinlets, pedicelled, subglobose, gibbous, the gibbous part with a 
small transversely striate areola. Spores depressed, with a dark spot. 
A small genus of Australian and New Zealand ferns, as transparent as Hymenophyllum, 
and differing in this respect only from Todea. 
Frond truncate below, the lowest pinnae long 1. L. liymenophylloides. 
Frond narrowed below, the lower pinnae becoming gradually smaller 2. L. superba. 
1. Xj. hymenophylloid.es, Presl ; — FI. N. Z. ii. 48. Bhizome short, 
stout, creeping. Fronds 6 in.~3 ft. high, ovate-lanceolate or deltoid, 2-pin- 
nate ; stipes slender or stout, and rachis glabrate, or covered with rather 
woolly red-brown tomentum ; primary divisions spreading, linear-lanceolate, 
acuminate, stalked, the lower not becoming gradually very small ; pinnules 
numerous, crowded, shortly stipitate, oblong, obtuse, deeply pinnatifid, seg- 
ments narrow, generally forked. — Todea liymenophylloides, Presl; — A. Rich. 
Flor. t. 16 ; Hook. Garden Ferns, t. 54; T. pellucida. Hook. Ic. PI. t. 8. 
Abundant throughout the Northern and Middle Islands, Banks and Solander, etc. 
Closely allied to the New South Wales L. pellucida. 
2. L. superba, Roo/c. Ic. PI. t. 910; FI. N. Z. ii. 48. Fronds form- 
ing a crown on the top of the rhizome, lanceolate, narrowed at the base, by 
the pinnae gradually becoming very small, and often produced to the very 
rhizome, stout, erect, 2-3 ft. high ; stipes and rachis very stout, woolly ; 
primary pinnae more numerous and close together than in L. liymenophylloides , 
not stipitate, the basal pinnules often overlapping the primary rachis ; pin- 
nules excessively numerous, densely crowded, ovate, often crisped, and con- 
cealing the rachis. — Todea superba, Colenso. 
Forests of the mountainous parts of the Northern Island, Colenso ; more common 
in the Middle Island, Banks and Solander, Forster, etc. Lord Auckland’s group, 
Bolton. A most splendid fern, but I suspect that it passes into the preceding. 
