Excluding the section Patania (Dennstædtia, Bernh.), which seems to be more appropriately placed in the vicinity of Davallia, the genus contains about 25 species, widely dispersed through the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. The 3 New Zealand species are endemic, but one of them differs but slightly from the Australian D. antarctica, Labill.
| Trunk 6–20 ft., slender, black. Stipes blackish-brown, tubercled. Sori 6–12 on each segment | 1. D. squarrosa. |
| Trunk 6–20 ft., very stout, brown. Stipes short, pale-brown, smooth. Sori 3–6 to each segment | 2. D. fibrosa. |
| Trunk wanting or very short. Stipes long, smooth, pale. Sori 6–12 to each segment | 3. D. lanata. |
1. D. squarrosa, Swartz., Syn. Fil. 136, 355.—Trunk 6–20 ft. high, slender, black or dark-brown, clothed above with the persistent bases of the old stipites. Fronds 4–8 ft. long, rarely more, 2–3½ ft. broad, oblong-lanceolate, 2–3-pinnate, rigid and coriaceous. Stipes slender, dark-brown or black at the base, paler above, when young clothed with long brownish-black hairs or setæ, almost glabrous when old, sides and under-surface rough with numerous small tubercles; rbachis and costæ clothed with deciduous reddish-brown wool above, rough with minute tubercles beneath. Primary pinnæ 10–20 in. long. 3–5 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary 1½–3 in. long, ¼–½ in. broad, deeply pinnatifid. Barren segments ovate or oblong, rigid, sharply toothed, the teeth almost pungent; fertile smaller and much contracted, pinnatifid. Sori copious, covering the whole under-surface of the frond, 5–12 on each segment or 1 to each lobule. Indusium rather large, both valves concave.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 216; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 68; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 9; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 351; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 51; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 31; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 50, t. 10, f. 6, and t. 25, f. 6. D. gracilis, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 306. Trichomanes squarrosum, Forst. Prodr. n. 476.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands.—Abundant in woods throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Weki or Wheki.
Easily recognised by the slender blackish trunk, harsh and coriaceous fronds, dark-coloured stipes rough with small tubercles beneath, and rather large copious sori. The trunk is occasionally branched and sometimes produces numerous adventitious buds along its whole length, crowned with miniature fronds. A form possessing this peculiarity, and with the fronds rather narrower and more finely cut than usual, was described by Mr. Colenso as a distinct species under the name of D. gracilis. I cannot separate it even as a variety.
2. D. fibrosa, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 19.—Trunk 8–20 ft. high, stout, columnar, everywhere thickly coated with matted fibrous aerial rootlets, giving it a diameter when mature of from 1–2 ft., clothed towards the top with the old pendent withered fronds. Fronds numerous, 30 or more, spreading, 4–8 ft. long, 1½–2 ft. broad, lanceolate. 2–3-pinnate, coriaceous but not so much so as in D. squarrosa. Stipes very short, clothed at the base with dense bright red-brown fibrillose scales; rbachis and costæ pale-
