X 



104 FLORA ANTAECTICA. [Auckland and 



During the examination of the materials from which the genus Hymenophyllum was described in the second 

 part of the " Species Filicum," I had but cursorily investigated the Auckland Island species, and considered the H. 

 minimum of Richard to be a small variety of II. Tunbridgenae, with terminal involucres. This state is not uncommon in 

 the vicinity of the Bay of Islands, and this I laid before my father ; whence the H. minimum was by him included as 

 a synonym of that widely diffused species. Amongst my specimens of H. multifidum I now find others of tliis very 

 minute and most distinct plant, which have enabled me to correct that error. In the rigid consistence of the frond, its 

 decurved habit and lurid colour, it is more nearly allied to H. multifidum than to any other species, but the curiously 

 spimdose valves of the involucre afford an excellent specific character, as do the small size, simple frond and singu- 

 larly concave segments, which appear bke the half of a tube, that is, hollow throughout their length and open at the 

 end. Between this plant and the Trichomanes ccezpitosum of the Falkland Islands and Cape Horn, much analogy 

 exists, especially in size, locality and habit ; in each the fronds are generally once divided, with the segments con- 

 cave and obtuse ; both have the indusia free or nearly so, spimdose at the back of the valves, and though often lateral 

 in the latter plant, the fructifications are, especially on small specimens, very generally terminal, and may prove to 

 be truly lateral in II. minimum, shoidd that plant be found in a more luxuriant state than M. Richard's or my spe- 

 cimens exhibit. In the ' Flora Novas Zelandiae ' M. Richard does not mention the original discoverer of the species ; 

 the figure in the ' Voy. de la Coquille ' is not characteristic of the curious involucres. 



2. Hymenophyllum multifidum, Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 149 and 378. Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 165. 

 Presl, Hj/menop/iyll. p. 32. Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 98. 



Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island ; in all situations, from the level of the sea to the 

 tops of the mountains, growing on the ground, on trunks of trees and on rocks. 



A very common New Zealand fern, from the latitude of the Bay of Islands to that of Campbell's Island ; repre- 

 senting in this region the H. tortuosum of Antarctic America and the H. Tunbridgense of the Northern Hemisphere. 

 It is very variable in size, but the fronds are always remarkably bent downwards, their apices often touching the 

 ground. 



3. Hymenophyllum demissum, Sw. Sgn. Fil. p. 147 and 374. ScMuhr Fil. 1. 135. c. F. Rich. Fl. 

 Nov. Zel. p. 92. Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 109. Sphaerocioniuni deinissvun, Presl, Ilymenophi/ll. p. 35. 



Hab. Lord Auckland's group ; in dense woods near the sea, often covering the ground with large 

 patches of a lurid green colour. 



The specimens of this beautiful species are smaller than those collected in the northern island of New Zealand, 

 but do not otherwise differ, 



Mr. Presl's genus Sphrerocionium is apparently founded only upon the form of the receptacle, in its being 

 " shorter than the indusium, naked and cylindrical below, and thickened and globose at the apex, which alone bears 

 the capsides ; " such characters can hardly be applied to this species, where the receptacle, though short, produces 

 capsules for at least two-thirds of its length, the lowest portion or thud part only being naked and cylindrical, gra- 

 dually thickening upwards into an elongated club-shaped body. 



The structure of the receptacle in most species of the genus Hymenophyllum, in its more extended sense, ap- 

 pears to me very uniform ; in length it varies extremely, but there is generally a short cylindrical body, which may 

 be considered a pedicellus to the elongated capsuliferous portion or true receptaeulum ; upon the comparative length 

 of this latter portion the genus of Presl rests. In some New Zealand specimens of this fern the pedicel is so 

 short as to be almost obliterated, the receptacle appearing like a stout column covered throughout its length with 

 capsules ; in others the whole organ is reduced to an elevated tubercle in the bottom of the involucre. Of the 

 other plants included by Mr. Presl under tliis genus I have examined several ; of these, S. infortunatwn, the only 



