.jpg)
Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
3. Tmesipteris, Bernh
3. Tmesipteris, Bernh.
Rhizorne creeping, sparingly branched; true roots wanting. Stems simple or rarely forked, pendulous or ascending, leafy. Leaves vertically placed, of two kinds; the foliage-leaves sessile and decurrent, simple and entire; the fertile leaves or sporophylls mixed with the foliage-leaves and about the same size, shortly petiolate, bipartite. Sporangia (or synangia) attached to the petiole of the fertile leaf just below the lobes, boat-shaped or spindle-shaped, coriaceous, pointed at both ends, slightly constricted about the middle, 2-celled with the septum across the narrow diameter, dehiscing longitudinally; rarely the sporangia are 3-celled or 1-celled. Spores minute, oblong.
page 1041A genus consisting of one highly variable species, found in New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania, and some of the Pacific islands. By some authors it is split up into 3 or 4, distinguished mainly by the shape of the apex of the leaf (which I find to be variable even in the same individual) and by certain histo-logical details, the constancy of which has yet to be established.
| 1. | T. tannensis, Bernh. in Schrad. Journ, Bot. ii. (1800) 131, t. 2.—Stems 4–18 in. long or more, simple or rarely once or twice forked, usually pendulous, slender, naked towards the base. Foliage-leaves rather closely placed, ⅓–1 in. long, obliquely oblong or oblong-lanceolate, sessile and strongly decurrent at the base, obtuse or truncate or acute at the tip, the midrib usually produced into a mucro of variable length, coriaceous, dark dull-green. Fertile leaves rather shorter than the foliage-leaves and replacing them at intervals down the stem, on short petioles sometimes ¼in. long, deeply 2-partite, the divisions usually similar to the foliage-leaves but smaller. Synangia sessile or very shortly stalked, ⅙–¼ in. long, parallel to the petiole, brown, coriaceous. — Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 680; Bak. Fern Allies, 30. T. Forsteri, Endl. Prodr. Fl. Norfolk. 6; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 151; Raoid, Choix, 37; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel ii. 51; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 391; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 108. T. truncata, Denv. in Ann. Soc. Linn. Par. vi. 192; Hook Gen. Ferns, t. 86.
Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Chatham Islands, Stewart Island, Auckland Islands: Common in forests throughout, usually epiphytic on the stems of tree-ferns, more rarely on rocks. Sea-level to 3000 ft. For a discussion on the morphology and systematic position of this plant see Professor Bower's memoir "On the Morphology of the Spore-producing Members" (Trans. Roy. Soc. 1894, p. 541–548) and the more recently published paper by Professor Thomas entitled "The Affinity of Tmesipteris with the Sphenophyllales" (Proc. Eoy. Soc, Vol. Ixix., p. 343–350). |