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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
24. Gymnogramme, Desv
24. Gymnogramme, Desv.
Rhizome short and tufted or long and creeping. Fronds very various, small or large, pinnate or 2–3-pinnate, rarely simple. Veins simple or forked, or more or less copiously anastomosing. Sori placed on the veins on the under-surface of the fronds, oblong or linear, often elongated, simple or forked. Indusium not developed. Sporangia stalked, bursting transversely, surrounded by an incomplete vertical ring.
As defined above, this is a heterogeneous assemblage of over 100 species, differing greatly from one another in habit, venation, and the arrangement of the sori, and often split up by authors into several small genera. It is widely spread in most tropical countries, but comparatively few species reach the temperate zones.
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Perennial. Fronds pinnate or 2-pinnatifid, subcoriaceous, densely clothed with ferruginous woolly hairs 1. G. rutæfolia. Annual. Fronds 2–3-pinnate, thin and membranous, quite glabrous 2. G. leptophylla.
| 1. | G. rutæfolia, Hook. and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 90.—Rhizome short, thick, erect or ascending, clothed with blackish-brown lanceolate scales. Stipes ¼-l in. long, stout or slender, everywhere densely villous with soft ferruginous woolly often glandular hairs. Fronds 1–3 in. long by about ½ in. broad, linear-oblong, obtuse, subcoriaceous, pinnate; both surfaces densely clothed with soft ferruginous or silvery-brown woolly hairs, many of which are glandular-tipped. Pinnæ alternate, rather distant, ⅛–½ in. long, obovate or rhomboid or flabellate, shortly stipitate and obliquely cuneate at the base, the lowermost with 2–3 shallow lobes or rarely pinnatifid. Veins flabellate. Sori linear-oblong, occupying most of the veins of the under-surface, distinct at first, but often confluent in age.—Hook. Fil. Exot. t. 5; Sp. Fil. v. 137; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 45; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 383; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 359. G. Pozoi var. rutæfolia, Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 379; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 91; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 144, t. 10, f. 1. G. alpina, Potts in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 361. Grammitis rutæfolia, R. Br. Prodr. 146; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 775. Ceterach rutæfolius, Mett. Fil. Hort. Lips. 80. Pleurosorus rutæfolius, Fèe. Gen. Fil. 180.
North Island: Hawke's Bay—Petane, A. Hamilton! Kuripapanga, H. Hill! Wellington— Cliffs in Cook Strait, Colenso! Cape Terawiti, Field. South Island: Marlborough—D'Urville Island, E. Craig! Brothers Islands, Field. Canterbury—Banks Peninsula, Upper Ashburton, Upper Rangitata, T. H. Potts! Southern Alps, J. D. Enys! Otago—Black's, Petrie. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Also widely distributed in Australia and Tasmania. It is united by most authors to the European G. Pozoi, which, however, seems to me to differ in the more slender habit, in being much less densely villous, the hairs seldom glandular, and in the narrower oblong (not obovate or flabellate) pinnæ. |
| 2. | G. leptophylla, Desv. Journ. Bot. i. 26.—Slender, delicate, annual, 1–6 in. high. Roots fibrous. Stipes ½–3 in. long, slender, brittle, smooth, glossy, bright chestnut - brown. Fronds 1–3 in. long, ½-l in. broad, ovate or ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate; the outer spreading, much shorter and broader, usually sterile; the inner longer and narrower, fertile, erect; pale-green, shining, thin and membranous, quite glabrous, 2–3-pinnate. Pinnæ alternate, stipitate, ¼–½ in. long, again pinnate; secondary rhachises margined throughout. Pinnules few, obovate-cuneate, 2–3-lobed or-partite; lobes linear or linear-oblong, obtuse. Veins forked, a single veinlet only to each lobe. Sori oblong or linear-oblong, usually a single one to each lobe, often becoming confluent and covering the whole pinnule.—Hook. and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 25; Sp. Fil. v. 136; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 45; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 383; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 383; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 92; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 144, t. 16, f. 6. G. novæ-zealandiæ, Col. in Tasm. Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 5. Grammitis leptophylla, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 218; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 776. Anogramme leptophylla, Link.
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North Island: Auckland—Volcanic hills on the Auckland Isthmus, once common, now rare and apparently restricted to Mount Wellington and Mount Smart, Colenso, &c.; Mount Maunganui (near Tauranga), Mrs. Hetley! East Cape district, Bishop Williams. Hawke's Bay—Scinde Island, Colenso! Rua-hine Mountains, H. Tryon! Wellington—Miramar, Buchanan! South Island: Canterbury—Lyttelton Harbour, abundant, T. H. Potts! Otago—Near Dun-edin, Purdie; Upper Clutha, Petrie. Sea-level to 1500 ft. Also in south Europe, North and South Africa, Persia, India, Australia and Tasmania, and South America. |