70 FILICES. [| Hypolepis. 
Mountains, Colenso/ Field; Manawatu Gorge, A. Hamilton; Tararua Mountains, 
W. Townson, B. C. Aston! SoutH Istanp: Not uncommon in mountain districts 
throughout. Stewart Istanp: Base of Table Hill, Cockayne. CAMPBELL ISLAND, 
AnvipopEs Isuanp: Kirk, Cockayne. Usually from 1500 to 4000 ft., but descends 
almost to sea-level in the south of Otago. 
Well distinguished from any of the forms of H. tenwifolia by the finely and 
deeply cut pinnules. It does not extend beyond New Zealand. 
3. H. distans Hook. Sp. Fil. ii (1858) 70, t. 95c.— Rhizome long, 
rigid, branched, clothed with red-brown linear scales. Stipes 3-9 in. long, 
slender, flexuous, fragile, red-brown, glossy, naked, minutely muricate. 
Fronds 6-15 in. long, 3-6in. broad, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rigid, 
brownish-green or reddish-brown, 2-pinnate ; rhachis slender, red-brown, 
glabrous or nearly so, scabrous like the stipes. Primary pinnae 2-3 in. 
long, about 4in. broad, opposite or nearly so, distant, spreading at right 
angles, lanceolate; secondary (pinnules) gin. long, sessile, lanceolate, 
rigid, deeply pinnatifid. Ultimate segments ovate, spreading, toothed or 
incised. Sori 2-8 to a pinnule, placed in the lower sinuses. Indusium 
composed of the inflexed tip of a lobule, small, membranous.—Hook. f. Fl. 
Nov. Zel. ii (1855) 23; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 362; Hook. and Bak. Syn. 
Fil. (1873) 129; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 56; Field N.Z. Ferns (1890) 
85, t. 28, f. 6; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 966. 
Norte AND Sours Istanps, CHatHam IsLtanps: In forest districts from the 
North Cape to the south of Otago, not common, usually at low elevations. 
Small and slender forms of Dryopteris punctata are easily mistaken for this; 
but in its usual state it is a smaller and more slender plant, with more distant pinnae, 
and the frond is never densely hairy or viscid-pubescent. It is confined to New 
Zealand. . 
26. ADIANTUM Linn. 
Rhizome creeping or tufted. Stipes usually long, often black and 
glossy. Fronds pinnate or 2-3-pinnate, never pinnatifid, rarely simple 
(in a few species not found in New Zealand). Pinnules more or less dimi- 
diate or unilateral. Veins forked or repeatedly dichotomous, frequently 
radiating from the petiole to the margin. Sori marginal, varying in shape 
from reniform or globose to oblong or linear, usually numerous and dis- 
tinct, sometimes confluent and continuous. Indusium the same shape as 
the sorus, composed of the altered margin of the frond, which 1s reflexed 
and bears the sporangia on its under-side, opening inwards. Sporangia 
stalked, bursting transversely ; ring vertical, incomplete. 
A well-marked genus of about 160 species, found in all tropical and subtropical 
countries, but most abundant in tropical South America, a few species found in 
the temperate zones of both hemispheres. All the New Zealand species extend to 
Australia, and the majority to the Pacific islands as well, while one has a very wide 
distribution in warm climates generally. 
A. Pinnules flabellate-cuneate, attached by the middle of the base. 
Fronds 2-3-pinnate, thin and membranous, glabrous. Pinnules 
small, orbicular with a cuneate base =} ct .. 1. A. aethiopicum. 
B. Pinnules one-sided, obliquely oblong or rhomboid, attached by the lower corner of the 
pinnule. 
* Sori in the deep notches between the teeth or lobules of the pinnules. 
Fronds small, tender, simply pinnate or with 1-2 branches at the 
base. Pinnules sparsely setulose, rarely glabrous v. 
Fronds dichotomous, each division flabellately divided into 3-7 
branches. Rhachis densely hispid “3 8 .. 3. A. hispidulum. 
2. A. diaphanum. 
