204 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Ferns of New Guinea.* — E. Rosenstock publishes descriptions of a 

 second series of eleven new ferns collected by E. Werner in New Guinea, 

 adding a list of fifty-two determinations of species already known to 

 science, and a few notes supplementing his previous paper in the same 

 periodical. 



Notes on Ferns of New Zealand. — H. C. Field f gives an account 

 of two new ferns found in New Zealand. One — Doodia aucklandica — 

 was growing in some scrub near Takapuna Lake, Auckland, and 

 resembled Lomaria filiformis, but after being cultivated for a year it 

 produced fertile fronds and showed itself to be a Doodia, but different 

 in habit from D. media and D. caudata. The other novelty — Pteris 

 novse-zelandise — came from Waikanae, and at first seemed to be a 

 Botrychium. It approaches Pteris tremula, but differs in several 

 respects from that species. The author adds some remarks upon the 

 cresting of ferns and the causes of it. 



L. Cockayne % publishes some hitherto unrecorded habitats for nine 

 New Zealand ferns. 



T. F. Cheeseman § in an addendum to some notes on botanical 

 nomenclature shows how the new Vienna rules affect ten of the New 

 Zealand ferns. 



Abnormal Ferns in New Zealand. — A. Hamilton || gives an 

 account of a number of abnormal developments in New Zealand ferns 

 which had previously escaped notice. He describes and figures the 

 variations, abnormalities, and crestings more or less remarkable, which 

 he has noticed in Lomaria fluviatilis, L. procera, Dicksonia squa/rrosa, 

 Adiantum Gunningliamii, Gheilanthes tenuifolia or G. Sieberi, Asplenium 

 umbrosum, A. trichomanes, A. flabettifolium, Aspidium amUatum, 

 Polypodium Billardierii, P. tenellum, Leptopteris hymen ophyllo ides. He 

 also gives a list of the papers which have been published on the ferns 

 of New Zealand. H. C. Field 1f gives some notes on a few peculiar 

 New Zealand ferns. Lomaria vulcanica is usually a tufted fern with a 

 crown of fronds sometimes raised 2 or 3 inches above the ground on a 

 short caudex ; but near Rotorua and Tauranga it occurs as a creeping 

 variety with wide spreading rhizomes, producing fronds at intervals 

 of several inches. This variety the author names repens. Another 

 fern, collected in the Piako swamp, presents very peculiar features. It 

 is Nephrodium unitum which is very old and has elongated its crown 

 into a sort of (forked) caudex 18 inches long in its endeavour to escape 

 from being smothered by the rise of the surface of the swamp ; and the 

 fronds emerging from the sides of the caudex have grown up to the 

 surface of the swamp as long rachises bearing very small fronds. 

 Another fern from the bank of the same Piako swamp has somewhat 

 the form of an Adiantum, but on close inspection clearly is an abnormal 

 form of Aspidium Richardi, one of the commonest New Zealand ferns. 



* Fedde, Repertorium, Berlin, v. (1908) 370-6. 

 t Trans. Proc. New Zealand Inst., xxxviii. (1906) pp. 495-8. 

 X Op. cit., xl. (1908) pp. 305. § Tom. cit., pp. 464-5, 



II Op. cit., xxxvi. (1904) pp. 334-42 (2 pis.). 

 i Op. cit., xxxvii. (1906) pp. 377-8. 



