336 Transactions. — Botany. 



gathering all the unusual forms that I could see. At that 

 time of year nearly all the fronds of the past season are 

 withered and frosted, and it is only under the high manuka 

 or under the shelter of some rock or bush that fronds fit 

 for examination can be found. 



I have tabulated the result of my foraging, and I find that 

 I picked eighty fronds which did not appear to be normal. A 

 very great proportion of all the fronds are what I shall call 

 dejMuperate — that is, the margin of the pinnaB is highly irre- 

 gular, instead of conforming to the shape of the pinnae of the 

 normal fronds. This is not peculiar to Signal Hill ; the same 

 obtains on nearly all high ground around Dunedin, and re- 

 quires to be exactly described by an experienced botanical 

 physiologist. Of these I picked a few here and there for 

 future study. I should say that fully 70 percent, of the fronds 

 of Lomaria procera are thus affected. 



Another class of abnormal fronds is the case in which the 

 main stipe is divided below the lowest pinna, and has prac- 

 tically two barren fronds on a single stipe. Another class, or 

 perhaps a subdivision of the last, is where the stipe is divided 

 nearer the apex, giving a partly double frond. 



The next variation is where the terminal pmna is divided 

 once or many times ; and, finally, where one or more of the 

 lateral pinnae are divided. 



Of the eighty fronds brought home there were : Depau- 

 perate, 11 (only a few of the most curious were picked) ; 

 stipe forked below commencement of pinnae, 15 ; stipe forked 

 nearer the apex, 12 ; apical pinna divided or forked more than 

 once, 19 ; fronds having one lateral pinna forked, 35 ; fronds 

 having two lateral pinnte forked, 5 ; fronds having three 

 lateral pinnae forked, 2 ; fronds having four lateral pinnae 

 forked, 1. 



It is evident from the above facts that a careful search 

 will reward the diligent searcher with further varieties ; and 

 the experience of English fern-growers -has proved that when 

 once a natural sport has been obtained it produces spores 

 from which an unending series of forms can be cultivated. 

 Mr. Field, a veteran collector and observer of New Zealand 

 ferns, has written in the Transactions on the variations in the 

 manner of growth of several species of ferns in the North 

 Island,''' and points out that what is taken as a species may 

 vary much in general habit in different localities. 



Curiously enough, Mr. Field, although he has had more 

 than half a century in the New Zealand bush in the North 



* Field, H. C. : " On the Growth of Perns; and on a New Fern now 

 first reported." Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxvii,, 446, 450. 



