Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/1000

960 —Mount Egmont Ranges, J. M. Brame. Wellington—Upper Wanganui, and from thence to the base of the Tararua Range, H. C. Field. : Nelson—Massacre Bay, Lyall; Torrent Bay, Kingsley. Westland—Near Hokitika, W. H. Tipler. Otago—Sounds of the West Coast, Buchanan.

A very beautiful and distinct species, usually found on dripping rocks by waterfalls, or on the mossy banks of streams.

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 dimidiate 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 distinct, sometimes confluent and continuous. Indusium the same shape as the sorus, composed of the altered margin of the frond, which is reflexed and bears the sporangia on its under-side, opening inwards. Sporangia stalked, bursting transversely; ring vertical, incomplete.

1. A, sethiopicum, ''Linn. Sp. Plant.'' 1560.—Rhizome creeping, stoloniferous. Stipes 4–10 in. long, very slender, dark chestnut-brown, shining, quite glabrous. Fronds 6–12 in. long, rarely more.