■i'l \ Transactions. — Botany. 



1 inch long, with small ovate and entire membranaceous scales 

 at base. Sterile fronds (generally 2) : petiole 2— 2-J- inches long, 

 medium thickness, not stout ; lamina broadly deltoid, 3-4 

 (sometimes, but rarely, 5) inches diameter, triternate, very open 

 and spreading ; pinna? distant on long narrow petioles, the 

 central pinna usually the largest ; dark brownish-green ; texture 

 sub-membranaceous, when dried wearing a rugulose sub-papillose 

 appearance ; veins very narrow, prominent, diverging ; segments 

 long, narrow, nearhy linear, entire, 1-nerved; nerve very slender, 

 extending to apices ; tips acute and ofted bifid and spreading. 

 Fertile frond (sometimes 2) : peduncle 6-8 inches long, twice the 

 height of the sterile frond, mostly very slender and flaccid, under 

 1 line in. diameter, sub-erect and drooping, straight and fiexuous, 

 bright orange-coloured and glossy ; panicle small, slender, sub- 

 triangular in outline, 1-2 (rarely 2^) inches long, usually 1-1^ 

 inches broad at base, (sometimes, but rarely, 3 inches broad, 

 and when so the basal sub-peduncles are very long and naked 

 below,) bipinnate, open, few and loosely branched ; branchlets 

 very short ; light yellowish-green. Capsules small, globose, not 

 crowded, sessile and sub-sessile, and (a few) pedicelled ; dark- 

 brown ; valves oblong-orbicular, broadly gaping, recurved, 

 margins thickened and reverted. Spores whitish, orbicular, 

 slightly roughish. 



Hab. In swamps, near Tahoraiti, County of Waipawa ; 

 April, 1885 : Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. I. This species appears to me to be very distinct from 

 all known ones. It usually bears two sterile and sometimes two 

 fertile fronds. The outer or lower sterile frond arises from the 

 base, is largely sheathing and connate ; the upper one springs 

 from the stipe about 1 inch above the lower one. When there 

 are two fertile fronds, both are nearly basal from below the 

 petiole of the upper barren frond, and are of equal length, 

 similar to some species of Anemia. In one of my specimens the 

 fertile stipe is single below, but divided a little above, each being 

 of the usual size and length. There is a marked difference 

 between the stipes of the barren and of the fertile fronds. 

 These, of the latter, are of a light orange hue, and very glossy ; 

 those of the former are stouter, and of a dull brownish-green 

 colour. 



II. It is not, however, wholly to its bearing four fronds from 

 one rootstock that I deem this plant to be a distinct species of 

 Botrychium ; but also from its linear entire segments, its rich, 

 glossy, slender, flaccid and coloured scapes ; its pedicelled 

 capsules ; its peculiar shaped valves ; its circular spores, and its 

 general outline and loose open appearance. Through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Hill, I have received upwards of 20 perfect plants, 

 all good and fresh specimens, and they are very much alike, 

 only one of them slightly differing, and that merely in size. 



