Takaka and West Wanganui, Kingsley. Westland—Kumara, J. M. Brame! Okarito, A. Hamilton! Otago—Dusky Sound, Hector and Buchanan. Stewart Island: Ulva, rare, Kirk. Sea-level to 3000 ft.
Confined to New Zealand, but very closely allied to the widely spread T. rigidum, Swartz.
7. T. elongatum, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 231.—Rhizome short, stout, erect or inclined, clothed with the bases of the old stipites; rootlets many, rigid and wiry. Fronds 4–8 at the top of the rhizome. Stipes 3–9 in, long, stout, rigid, terete, rough below and furnished at the very base with a tuft of linear bristles, not winged above. Fronds 3–8 in. long, 1½–3 in. broad, ovate-deltoid, acuminate, rigid, dark olive-green, often coated on the upper surface with mosses and hepaticæ, 2–3-pinnatifid; main rhachis scarcely winged except at the very top. Primary pinnæ close, rhomboidal-lanceolate, pinnate at the base, pinnatifid above; secondary imbricating, oblong-cuneate, deeply incised or pinnatifid. Ultimate segments or lobes rather broad, usually incised at the tips, the teeth acute; veins stout, branching, one to each tooth. Sori numerous, in the axils of the lobes of the secondary pinnæ. Indusium narrow funnel-shaped, quite free; mouth scarcely dilated, entire or very slightly 2-lipped. Receptacle stout, rigid, exserted.—Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 701; Sp. Fil. i. 134; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 17; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 356. T. rigidum var. elongatum, Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 86; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 48; Field, N.Z. Ferns 73, t. 16, f. 2. T. polyodon. Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 618.
North Island: Dark woods, abundant to the north of the East Cape, from thence rare and local southwards to Cook Strait. South Island: Nelson—Collingwood, D. Grant; Takaka and West Wanganui, Kingsley. Marlborough—Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander. Canterbury—Banks Peninsula, Armstrong. Sea-level to 2500 ft.
Closely allied to the widely distributed T. rigidum, Swartz, and considered to be a variety of it by Mr. Baker and other pteridologists. But the frond is broader and more deltoid, the rhizome is not creeping, and the stipes and rhachis quite wingless; the pinnæ are more imbricate and less divided, and the segments are broader and shorter. It is also found in the New Hebrides.
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.
