616 Transactions. — Botany. 



with scales, which are also sparingly scattered on stipe ; roots 

 <lescending, wiry. Fronds erect, submembranaceous, dull- 

 green (dried), linear-lanceolate ; stipe and rhachis very slender, 

 ahnost filiform, smooth, deeply channelled, dark -brown. 

 Barren fronds various sizes, 2^in.-5in. long, 4-5 lines broad, 

 sometimes subhorizontal and spreading, rhachis flexuous, 

 pinnatifid ; lobes numerous, cut nearly to rhachis (and generally 

 distinct in middle of frond, almost pinnate (pinnato-jnnnati- 

 ftd), as shown by the small red marginal line of separation 

 beWeen them), not close, sinuses broad ; inferior lobes 

 opposite ; superior alternate and zigzag, deltoid and oblong, 

 sessile, adnate, margins recurved, sub-crenulate-toothed, their 

 tips pointed with a tooth, coarsely veined ; veins forked, usually 

 3-jugate, not extending to margin, tips clavate and subtrans- 

 lucent ; apical lobe short, narrow, acuminate acute. Fertile 

 fronds twice as long as barren, stipe very long usually 

 5in.-6in., pinnate ; pinnae opposite, distant 2-3 lines apart 

 on rhachis, very small, 2 lines long, sub 1 line wide at base, 

 narrow deltoid-acuminate, falcate reversed, adnate and con- 

 tinuous produced upwards on rhachis (sursitm cinren.s), sub- 

 rugulose, margins irregularly undulate ; tips pointed ; dark- 

 brown. Involucre large, inflated, pale-brown, margin lacini- 

 ate and overlapping. Sori numerous, covering whole under- 

 surface of pinna ; sporangia on long pedicels. Scales deltoid, 

 obtuse, cordate, half-clasping, fawn-coloured. 



Hal). Ruahine Mountain-range, east side : Mr. H. Hill ; 

 1894. 



Obs. This species will rank near to L. aljwia, Sprengel, 

 and to L. parvifolia, Col. (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xx., 

 p. 224), and their allies, differing widely, however, in several 

 characters, especially in position and peculiar formation and 

 habit of its fertile pinn;B, their superior bases running upwards 

 on rhachis, instead of downwards. 



2. L. alternans, sp. nov. 



Plant small, tufted ; rootstock ascending, coalescent ; roots 

 long, branched, densely clothed with red woolly hairs ; fronds 

 (sub 20) erect and spreading, lanceolate, glabrous ; stipites 

 very hairy at base, scales dark-brown, long and coarse, shining, 

 :^in. long, 1 line broad at base, subulate, very narrow acumi- 

 nate; veins longitudinal, close, coarse; veinlets anastomosing. 

 Barren frond pinnatifid, membranous, green, 7in.-10in. long 

 (including stipe 2|^in.), -^in. wide (at middle) ; lobes alternate, 

 regularly zigzag throughout, oblong - deltoid, tips rounded, 

 midribs ascending, margins undulate subcrenulate with minute 

 callous teeth (3-4-5 together) at tips of veins ; veins few, free, 

 distant, and forked, extending to margin, tips clavate, the 



