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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
8. Davallia, Smith
8. Davallia, Smith.
Rhizome usually long and creeping, paleaceous. Fronds large or small, usually compound, very variously divided, rarely simple, stipitate; texture coriaceous to membranous. Veins always free. Sori dorsal, but close to or at the margin of the frond, terminating a vein or veinlet, globose or more or less elongated.Indusium oblong or ovate to orbicular or broader than long, attached by a broad base under the sorus, its sides either free or adnate to the frond, open at the top. Sporangia numerous, stalked, girt by an incomplete vertical ring, bursting transversely.
A large genus of over 100 species, most abundant in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World, rare in America. The three species found in New Zealand are endemic. I have kept up the genus as defined in the "Synopsis Filicum," but the tendency of authors is to separate it into five or six or even more separate genera, mainly based on differences in the indusium. If these views are followed, D. Tasmani is the only one of the New Zealand species that would be retained in the restricted genus Davallia, D. novæ-zea-landiœ constituting the genus Leptolepia of Mettenius, and D. Forsteri falling, into Odontosoria of Presl.
Fronds 4–12 in., broadly deltoid, thick and coriaceous; ultimate segments oblong, obtuse. Indusium cup-shaped, attached by the sides as well as the base 1. D. Tasmani. Fronds about 6 in., rhomboid, subcoriaceous ultimate segments ligulate-cuneate. Indusium pouch-shaped, attached by the sides as well as the base 2. D. Forsteri. Fronds 12–24 in., ovate-oblong to deltoid, firm but hardly coriaceous, very finely cut; ultimate segments narrow, acute. Indusium broadly ovate, attached by the base only 3. D. novæ-zea-landiœ.
| 1. | D. Tasmani,Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiii. (1891) 416. —Rhizome long, stout, as thick as the finger, wide - creeping, densely clothed with chestnut - brown subulate ciliated scales. Stipes strong, rigid, smooth, 3–9 in. long. Fronds 4–12 in. long, 8–9 in. broad, broadly deltoid or pentagonal, very thick and coriaceous, quite smooth and glabrous, 2–3-pinnatifid. Lower pinnæ much the largest, broadly deltoid or rhomboidal; upper narrower, ovate or lanceolate. Pinnules oblong, cut down nearly to the base into 6–9 segments; segments short, oblong, obtuse. Sori very numerous, usually one to each segment, marginal, the segment usually produced on the outer side into a stout projecting horn. Indusium narrow cup-shaped, attached by the sides as well as the base.—Field, N.Z. Ferns, 75, t. 24, f. 5; Bak. in Ann. Bot. v. (1890–91) 201.
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North Island Three Kings Islands, abundant, T. F. C. Very close to the northern D. canariensis, L., but stouter and more coriaceous, and not so finely cut. |
| 2. | D. Forsteri,Carruthers in Seem. Fl. Viti. 339.—"Stipes 6–8 in. long, naked, stramineous. Frond rhomboid, 4-pinnate, 6 in. long; pinnæ and pinnules ascending, rhomboid, stalked, the lowest the largest, cuneate-truncate on the lower side at the base; final segments ligulate - cuneate, 2–4 lines long, under ½ line broad; texture subcoriaceous; surfaces naked; sori minute, terminal, with the lamina produced on each side as a border."—Bak. Syn. Fil.(edit. 2) 470 Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 49 Field, N.Z. Ferns, 74. Adiantum clavatum, Forst. Prodr. n. 459.
South Island: Dusky Bay, Forster. Only known from Forster's specimens preserved in the British Museum Herbarium. Mr. Baker remarks that it is very near the New Caledonian D. scoparia, but the sori are smaller and bordered. In all probability it was collected by Forster in some locality in Polynesia, and accidentally mixed with his New Zealand plants. |
| 3. | D. novæ-zealandiæ, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci.(1845) 22.—Rhizome long, branched, wide-creeping, as thick as a quill, clothed with yellowish-brown linear scales. Stipes 6–18 in. long, red-brown, firm, erect, rough and bristly at the base, smooth and polished above. Fronds 1–2 ft. long, 6–12 in. broad, ovate-oblong to deltoid, acuminate, firm but scarcely coriaceous, tripinnate; rhachis flexuose, channelled above, glabrous or pubescent at the axils. Primary pinnæ oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary about the same shape, pinnate below, pinnatifid at the tips. Pinnules about ½ in. long, ovate-lanceolate,. deeply pinnatifid; ultimate segments or lobes very narrow, acute. Sori very numerous, placed at the tip of a short lateral veinlet on the lobes of the pinnules. Indusium broadly ovate or almost orbicular, membranous, jagged, attached to the tip of the vein under the sorus, its sides quite free.—Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 158, t. 51B Garden Ferns, t. 51 Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 19; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 358; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 91; Thorns. N.Z. Ferns, 49; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 74, t. 18, f. 2. D. hispida, Heward MSS. ex Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 158. Acrophorus hispidus, Moore, Index. Fil.Leptolepia novæ-zealandiæ, Metten. ex Kuhn.
North and South Islands In woods from the Bay of Islands southwards to Foveaux Strait, but often local. Sea-level to 2000 ft. A very handsome and distinct species, with an unusually finely cut frond. It has been referred by turns to the genera (or divisions of Davallia) Leu-costegia, Microlepia, and Acrophorus, and has been made the type of a new genus (Leptolepia) by Mettenius. |