338 Transactions. — Botany. 



Cheilanthes tenuifolia or sieheri : This is an extremely 

 variable fern in the neighbourhood of Petane, Hawke's Bay, 

 and I have found many divided and otiierwise irregular 

 fronds. At one time or another I have found abnormal 

 fronds of nearly all the common Lomarias, especially L. pro- 

 cera, L. discolor, and L. alpina. 



In Aspleninm I have gathered A. trichomanes beautifully 

 crested on the rocks near Peiane, and near Waipawa, in a 

 small patch of bush, a very curious form of A. fiabellifoliuvi. 

 Mr. A. C. Purdie had a well- crested form of A. falcatum, origin- 

 ally found on Quarantine Island, near Port Chalmers, and I 

 have seen other plants in cultivation in Dunedin. I have 

 not gathered many abnormal fronds of Aspidium, though this 

 is a group in which many sports may be looked for. I have 

 specimens of A. aculeatum vv^ith divided fronds, and have seen 

 a very remarkable form said to have been obtained on Saddle 

 Hill, in the Taieri district of Otago, which carried young 

 plants on the under-surface of every frond about 6 in. from 

 the tip, the fronds being about 3 ft. long. On the Waitati 

 Saddle I have seen plants of this fern which showed a bend 

 or weakness in the otherwise normal frond at just about the 

 same position on the frond. The plant was cultivated for 

 years by the late Mr. A. C. Purdie, but has, I am afraid, 

 passed out of existence." 



One of the most striking forms that I have seen was 

 brought to me by Mr. C. W. Adams from the Catlin's River 

 Bush. It was a large mass of Polypodium billardieri much 

 crested. I had this plant in cultivation for some years, but 

 one very severe winter it died out. I have seen a similar 

 form in a nurseryman's collection in Christchurch. 



Polypodium teiiellum also sports into crested forms, one of 

 which I gathered at Tongoio. 



In the neighbourhood of Dunedin the Leptopteris hymeno- 

 phylloides is usually much more lanceolate in form of frond 

 than in the North, and appears to be affected by some 

 fungoid(?) disease which thickens the pinnules irregularly, 

 making them crisp and brittle and markedly dissimilar to the 

 other pinnules, quite spoiling the feathery appearance of the 

 frond. 



* Since writing the above note I have seen other plants of this 

 variety. In the frond now before me, from a small plant with fronds 

 averaging about 12 in., the young bulbils are aggregated in a bunch 1 in. 

 from the apex of the frond. Some of the bulbils have aborted, but two 

 have developed fronds J in. in length, and two of these carry fully de- 

 veloped sporangia on every pinnule. The frond only dovelopes these 

 ijulbils in the autumn. The main bunch of bulbils is at the base of a 

 pinna on the right side of the main rhachis, but eich of the two lower 

 pinnae on the other side have a less developed bulbil at a point where they 

 form the rhachis. 



