CoLENSO.^0^ neiv New Zealand Ferns. 397 



gating tips or shoots of rhizome) densely clothed with very 

 short shining reddish-brown terete jointed appressed hairs, 

 their tips obtuse. Frond ample, subdeltoid, 3ft. 6in. long 

 (some smaller), 3ft. 2in.-3ft. 6in. broad at base, tripinnate (or 

 subquadripinnate), green, very membranous, glabrous, with 

 small weak shrivelled whitish strangulated scaly hairs scat- 

 tered singly on veins and veinlets both surfaces ; pinnae large, 

 distant, loose, horizontal ; rhachis and subrhachises pale, stra- 

 mineous, smooth and glossy on the under-side, with minute 

 greyish scaly hairs on the upper. Pinnae, primaries distant 

 on main rhachis, lowest pair 6in. from the next, which is 5in. 

 from the next above, sub-ovate- (or deltoid-) acuminate, 

 20in.-21in. long, lOin.-llin. wide at base, the lowest pair 

 always opposite (and the next two pairs nearly so), their 

 petioles lin. long ; secondaries petiolate, alternate (the lower- 

 most pair subopposite), free, 2m. apart, 5in.-6in. long, 2in. 

 wide, sub-ovate-acuminate, tips caudate acute their lobes very 

 small confluent ; rhachis remarkably slender, almost filiform. 

 Pinnules alternate (the three lower pairs opposite), free, dis- 

 tant, spreading, l^in. long, 4 lines wide, narrow oblong 

 broadest at base, flat, deeply pinnatifid, subsessile (or much 

 contracted subpetiolate), narrowly decurrent, the superior 

 base also runs up (s2^rs«??i cw?Tews), so that both sides join on 

 to the next pinnule, tips rounded and bluntly 4-6-toothed, 

 midrib undulate. Lobes opposite, usually six pairs (decreas- 

 ing in number towards tips), distant, broadly oblong, sub- 

 falcate, narrowly margined, margins pale and shining, encire 

 (sometimes a single large crenate tooth on anterior margin), 

 irregularly undulate, sinuses rounded, tips rounded very ob- 

 tuse, 2-3-toothed, teeth obtuse. Veins pinnate, 3-jugate ; 

 costa forked at apex ; veinlets simple and forked, free, dis- 

 tant, extending to margin. Sori round, distant, regularly 

 disposed opposite in pairs, one on a lobe on the lowest inner 

 veinlet, and 2 opposite on the basal lobes, about 4-5 pairs 

 on a large pinnule (confined to the lower lobes), submarginal 

 and near to sinus, pale- and light-brown. 



Hah. Edge of wood, south of Dannevirke, County of Wai- 

 pawa ; May, 1891 : W. C. 



Obs. I. This fern, which I call a remarkable one, has 

 both pleased and puzzled me. Fortunately I found it grow- 

 ing in abundance, forming large tangled brakes, much like 

 Pteris csculenta in growth and habit, and like that also in it 

 being difficult to get through — in which respect it is almost 

 worse than the Pteris, from it being so brittle and entangled, 

 the long tender fronds breaking and impeding. From the 

 extreme tenderness of its fronds it is also difficult to obtain a 

 perfect specimen, even in a young state the tips of its long 

 flaccid pmnae bemg generally broken and imperfect. 



