ee 
66 FILICES. [ Pellaea. 
Extends to Australia and Tasmania, the Malay Archipelago, and India. All the 
New Zealand specimens that I have seen have shorter and broader pinnae than the 
typical state, and approach P. rotundifolia so closely as to make it probable that the 
two species are forms of one plant. 
2. P. rotundifolia Hook. Sp. Fil. ii (1858) 186.—-Habit of P. falcata, 
but smaller and more slender, and fronds often decumbent. Rhizome 
long, rigid, wiry, creeping, clothed with appressed scales. Stipes 3-6 in. 
long, dark red-brown, densely pubescent and scaly. Fronds 6-14 in. long, 
311 in. broad, linear, simply pinnate ; rhachis bristly and scaly throughout. 
Pinnae 10-30 on each side, alternate, petiolate or the upper sessile, quite 
entire, 4-3in. long, }-3in. broad, variable in shape, oblong or oblong- 
ovate to orbicular, obtuse or mucronate at the tip, rounded or obliquely 
truncate at the base, glabrous or nearly so, coriaceous; veins concealed. 
Sori forming broad marginal lines on both the upper and lower edges 
of the pinnae, but not so continuous as in P. falcata. Indusia very 
numerous, membranous, involute when young, but soon reflexed and 
often concealed by the sporangia.— Hook. Fil. Exot. (1857-59) t. 48; 
Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 363; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fal. (1873) 
151; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 59; Field N.Z. Ferns (1890) 89, t. 14, 
f. 2: Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 969. Pteris rotundifolia Forst. f. 
Prodr. (1786) n. 420; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 78; A. Cumnn. 
Precur. (1836) n. 198; Raoul Choix (1846) 38; Hook. Ic. Plant. (1842) 
t. 422; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 730. Allosurus rotundifolius Kunze 
in Linnea, xxviii (1850) 219. Platyloma rotundifolium J. Smith in London 
Journ. Bot. (1841) 160. 
Norta AND Soutn Isuanps, CHATHAM IsLANDS: From the North Cape to 
Foveaux Strait, not uncommon in dry woods. Sea-level to 2000 ft. 
Also in Norfolk Island; and Bentham refers a Queensland plant to the same 
species. 
23. NOTHOCHLAENA R. Br. 
Rhizome short and tufted or long and creeping. Fronds usually 
small, erect, pinnate or 2-3-pinnate; under-surface more or less 
densely scaly or woolly or coated with white powder; texture 
coriaceous. Veins free, forked, not anastomosing. Sori marginal, oblong 
or rounded, terminating the veins, at first distinct, but soon confluent 
into a continuous or interrupted marginal line, often partly concealed by 
the slightly inflexed margin of the frond, but with no true indusium. 
Sporangia stalked, bursting transversely, girt by an incomplete vertical 
ring. 
A genus of between 30 and 40 species, widely dispersed through the tropical and 
warm temperate regions of both hemispheres. It hardly differs from Cheilanthes, 
except in the recurved margin of the frond not being distinctly modified into an 
indusium. The single New Zealand species is also found in Australia, Norfolk Island, 
and New Caledonia. 
Cirerlonthes dittams (RB.3 
1. N. distans #. Br. Prodr. (1810) EP: some short, stout, 
suberect or prostrate, clothed with the bases of the old stipites and 
with ferruginous linear scales. Stipes 1-4in. long, stiff, wiry, erect, 
dark chestnut-brown, more or less clothed with subulate-lanceolate 
scales. Fronds numerous, tufted at the top of the rhizome, 3-6in. long 
without the stipes, }-lin. broad, linear-oblong, erect, rigid, subcoriaceous, 
