Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

13. Cheilanthes,Swartz

13. Cheilanthes,Swartz.

Rhizome short and tufted, or long and creeping. Fronds usually small, erect, 2–3-pinnate; texture subcoriaceous. Veins free, forked, not anastomosing. Sori marginal, terminating the veins, small, rounded or oblong, at first distinct, afterwards more or less confluent. Indusium roundish or oblong, consisting of a more page 967or less modified tooth or lobule of the frond, reflexed over the sorus and in the young state more or less concealing it. Sporangia stalked, bursting transversely, girt by an incomplete vertical ring.

A genus of about 60 species, found in most tropical and temperate regions. It is only separated from Nothochlœna by the modified tooth or lobule of the frond reflexed over the sorus, a character which is sometimes so obscure that it is difficult to separate the two genera. The two New Zealand species are both widely distributed.
Fronds broad, deltoid 1.C. tenuifolia.
Fronds linear-oblong or linear 2. C. Sieberi.
1.C. tenuifolia,Swartz, Syn. Fil. 129, 332.—Rhizome very short, suberect, clothed with silky scales. Stipes 3–9 in. long, tufted, wiry, erect, dark red-brown, smooth and polished, glabrous or slightly scaly when young. Fronds 4–10 in. long, 2–4 in. broad, deltoid or ovate-deltoid, submembranous, yellowish-green, 3-pin-natifid; rhachis smooth, polished, glabrous or nearly so. Primary pinnæ 6–12 on each side, opposite or nearly so, ascending or spreading; the lowest pair sometimes 2½ in. long, deltoid; the upper smaller and narrower. Pinnules oblong or elliptic-oblong, deeply pinnatifid; ultimate segments entire or irregularly lobed or crenate; surfaces glabrous. Sori on the margins of the lobes, generally confluent and continuous all round the edge of the pinnules. Indusium narrow, elongated, usually crenate or denticulated, often transversely wrinkled.—Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 82, t. 87c Hook, and Bak. Syn. Fil. 138 Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 726; Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vi. (1874) 248; Thorns. N.Z. Ferns, 57; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 86, t. 21, f. 2, 3. C. Kirkii, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 360 (not of Hook.).C. venosa, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxv. (1893) 321. Pteris alpina. Field, N.Z. Ferns, 97, t. 28, f. 2.

North Island Auckland — Mount Maunganui, near Tauranga, Mrs. Hetley!Hawke's Bay—Mohaka, E. Craig!Petane, A. Hamilton! in various localities, Colenso!Wellington—Near Wanganui, H. C. Field.South Island Canterbury — Banks Peninsula, Lyall, Armstrong, Kirk!Otago—Mountains near Lake Wakatipu, Buchanan;Lake Wanaka, Mrs. Mason!Sea-level to 2500 ft.

Extends northwards through Australia to the Malay Archipelago, India, and China. The typical state is easily distinguished from the following species by the broad deltoid frond, but intermediates are occasionally seen.

2.

C. Sieberi,Kunze in Pl. Preiss. ii. 112.—Rhizome short, stout, creeping, clothed with chestnut-brown scales. Stipes 3–9 in. long, densely tufted, erect, wiry, dark chestnut-brown, polished, glabrous or with a few fibrillose scales. Fronds 3–9 in. long, ¾–1½ in. broad, linear-oblong or linear, erect, rigid, glabrous, 2–3-pinnatifid rhachis smooth, glossy. Primary pinnæ 3–15 opposite pairs, ascending, the lower rather remote, ½-l in. long, ovate-deltoid. Pinnules oblong, deeply pinnatifid; segments entire or page 968cuneate, margins much recurved when dry. Sori roundish or oblong, distinct, or ultimately confluent and continuous round the margins of the pinnules. Indusium usually elongated, narrow; margins pale, entire or minutely denticulate.—Hook. Sp. Fil. ii. 83, t. 97B Hook, and Bah. Syn. Fil. 137 Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 58; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 87, t. 21, f. 1. C. tenuifolia, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 83; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 210; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 23 (for the greater part, not of Swartz).C. tenuifolia var.Sieberi, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 362. C. erecta, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 619.

North and South Island From the North Cape southwards, not uncommon in dry rocky places.

Abundant in Australia, and also found in New Caledonia and the Isle of Pines.