52 FILICES. [Asplenium. 
compressed or angled, greenish, scaly at the base, naked above. Fronds 
very variable in size and shape, 3in. to 3ft. long or more, 2-9 in. broad, 
the long-fronded varieties lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, the shorter ones 
ovate or broadly ovate, acuminate, thick and coriaceous, flaccid and pendulous 
or rigid and erect, pale-green, quite glabrous, pinnate or bipinnate. Pinnae 
remote or rather close, 2-l0in. long, }-?in. broad, in the pendulous 
varieties narrow-linear to lanceolate, but in the small erect forms often 
much broader, acuminate or caudate, usually cut down to a narrowly 
winged rhachis into erecto-patent straight or incurved linear-oblong obtuse 
or acute lobes {-3in. long; or more rarely the pinnae are again pinnate 
at the base, with the secondary divisions lobed or pinnatifid. Veins indis- 
tinct, a single one to each lobe. Sori oblong, usually on the margins of the 
lobes, rarely on the disc of the pinnae ——Hook. Sp. Fil. iii (1860) 205 ; Hook. f. 
Fl. Nov. Zel. iu (1855) 35; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 374; Hook. and Bak. 
Syn. Fil. (1873) 223; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 749; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns 
(1882) 76; Freld N.Z. Ferns (1890) 123, t. 12, f. 2; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 
(1906) 994. A. heterophyllum A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 74. Coenop- 
teris flaccidum Thunb. Nov. Act. Petr. ix (1795) 158, t. v., f. 1, 2; A. Cunn. 
Precur. (1836) n. 194; Raoul Choix (1846) 38. C. novae-zealandiae Spreng. 
mm Schrad. Journ. (1799) 269; Raoul Choix (1846) 38. Darea flaccida 
Willd. Sp. Plant. v (1810) 295. 
Kermapec Isuanps, NortH anp Sour Istanps, Stewart Isnanp, CHaTHam 
IsLANDS, AUCKLAND IsLanps: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. 
Also found in Australia and Tasmania, in several of the Pacific islands, and said 
to have been gathered in South Africa. In New Zealand it varies excessively, the 
varieties depending to a large extent on the nature of their habitat, specimens growing 
on trees in damp forests being long and narrow and pendulous, while those found on 
exposed rocks are broad, rigid, and erect. Sir J. D. Hooker makes 5 varieties in the 
Handbook, but they are so intimately connected by intermediate forms that it is difficult 
to provide them with satisfactory definitions. 
13. A. Shuttleworthianum Kunze Farrnkr. i (1840) 26, t. 14—Rhizome 
short, tufted. Fronds very variable in size, 1-3 ft. including the stipes, 
erect or pendulous, broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, acuminate, 3-4-pinnate, 
glabrous, coriaceous, yellowish-green ; inferior pinnae subopposite, ,some- 
what remote; superior alternate, more closely placed, all narrowed into 
acuminate points; secondary pinnae lanceolate, pinnatifid or again 
pinnate ; ultimate segments very narrow, expanded at the tip to support 
the sorus, and thus becoming linear-spathulate. Sori copious, very small, 
mostly solitary and marginal on the segments.—Mett. Aspl. (1859) 
109 ; Hook. Sp. Fil. iti (1860) 211 ; Moore Ind. Fil. (1860) 168. A. flaccidum 
var. Shuttleworthianum Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 374; Cheesem. 
Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 995. 
KERMADEC Istanps: Sunday Island, not uncommon on coastal and inland rocks, 
McGillivray, T. F.C., Oliver ! 
A very handsome and conspicuous species, quite unlike any form of A. flaccidum, 
to which it was reduced by Sir J. D. Hooker. It was discovered on Pitcairn Island by 
Mr. Cuming, but has since been found in the Samoan Group and elsewhere in 
Polynesia. 
19. BLECHNUM Linn. 
(Subgenus Lomaria Willd.) 
Rhizome creeping or short and suberect, sometimes lengthened into a 
short caudex, rarely long and climbing. Fronds variable in size, usually 
