Meringium C.Presl
Meringium Presl Hymen. 1843, 24, t. 8 B, as genus.
Fronds pinnately compound, margins toothed or rarely entire, cell-walls us. thick and pitted; indusium funnel-form, 2-valved in upper part; receptacle us. far-exserted.
Key
1
Fronds seldom over 2.5 cm. long, pinnatifid to simple; indusial valves spinulose on margins and backs
Sori not restricted to bases of pinnae, partly immersed; indusium 2-valved almost to base, 1-1·5 cm. long
The N.Z. spp. do not fit quite comfortably into the subgenus. Copeland (Philipp. J. Sci. 67, 1938, 39) remarks: "The New Zealand species are less distinct from Hymenophyllum in the development of the walls". In Philipp. J. Sci. 73, 1940, 457 he says that Meringium in its full and typical development is a New Guinea - Malayan genus, and that in N.Z. and America, nearer to the common Antarctic ancestral source, it is always less distinct from Hymenophyllum.
