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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

3. Loxsoma, R. Br

3. Loxsoma, R. Br.

Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, paleaceous. Fronds erect, coriaceous, opaque, quite glabrous, 3–4-pinnate stipes long. Veins free, not anastomosing. Sori marginal, in a sinus of the teeth or lobes of the frond, terminating a vein. Indusium cup-shaped or almost urceolate, coriaceous mouth truncate, entire. Receptacle long, columnar, exserted. Sporangia numerous, mixed with jointed hairs, obovoid or pyriform, girt by a complete oblique ring, bursting vertically.

A genus of a single species, endemic in the northern portion of the colony.

page 947
1.L. Cunninghamii,R. Br. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 215, t. 31, 32.—Rhizome long, stout, tortuous, densely clothed with linear red-brown hairs. Stipes 1–2 ft. high, erect, pale-brown, glabrous, smooth and polished. Fronds 9–24 in. long, 6–12 in. broad, broadly triangular, coriaceous, dark-green above, glaucous-white or pale-green beneath; rhachis polished, channelled. Primary pinnæ rather distant, ascending, the upper alternate, the lowermost opposite secondary ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, pinnate below, pinnatifid above. Ultimate segments oblong, subacute, toothed or notched. Sori inserted in the notches, the indusium pointing backwards from the frond.—Raoul, Choix, 38 Hook, Gen. Fil. t. 15 Sp. Fil. i. 86,; Garden Ferns, t. 31; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 18 Handb. N.Z. Fl. 358; Hook, and Bak. Syn. Fil. 56; Thorns. N.Z Ferns, 33; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 55, t. 12, f. 1. Trichomanes cœnop-teroides, Harv. ex A. Cunn. l.c.Davallia dealbata, A. Cunn. l.c.

North Island: Auckland—In woods from Mongonui and Kaitaia southwards to Te Aroha, not common. Sea-level to 1200 ft.

A very remarkable fern, with the habit of a coriaceous Davallia or Dicksonia, and the sorus of a Trichomanes.But the sporangia differ widely from those of Trichomanes in having an oblique ring, and the dehiscence is vertical, like that of Gleichenia and Schisœa.In has generally been placed in the tribe Hymenophyllaceœ, but the recent investigations of Professor Bower (Phil. Trans. Vol. excii., pp. 47 to 52) seem to prove that Presl and Bommer were right in regarding it as constituting a distinct tribe, having affinities with Gleichenia and Schizœa on the one hand, and on the other with the Hymenojohyllaceœ and Dennstœdia.