Field. — On a New Fern. 447 



fronds, seemed to mark them unmistakably as Asplenium 

 obiusatum, var. lyallii, particularly of that form of it with 

 indented edges, approximating to A. bulbiferum. The speci- 

 mens had uo rhizomes attached, and I therefore felt doubtful 

 whether there had not been some mistake about them 

 —whether, in fact, they might not have belonged to some 

 other fern. I wrote to several fern-collectors, and found that 

 they knew nothing of such a plant, and Mr. Cheeseman, in 

 particular, thought there was a mistake about it. The matter, 

 however, was settled by my receiving from Mr. Patterson 

 several weeks ago half a dozen live plants, with unmistakable 

 creeping rhizomes, such as he described, and one of them with 

 a lateral rhizome branching out from the main one. Mr. 

 Patterson stated that he obtained them from off the face of 

 a sloping rock, about 15ft. high by 12ft. broad, which was 

 covered with them. Var. lyallii has never, I believe, been 

 hitherto reported from any locality north of Wellington. It 

 is usually an exclusively terrestrial plant, and has less of the 

 creeping tendency than any other form of Asplenium ob- 

 tusatum ; in fact, it usually produces only a crown of 

 fronds on the top of an erect rhizome, though in very 

 old plants it is not unusual to find lateral crowns sur- 

 rounding the main one. In every case, however, each 

 year's fronds grow close together, and closely on top of the 

 dying fronds of the previous year. The root-fibres, too, start 

 from below the original crown, though it is possible that in 

 some cases where soil has accumulated round the rhizome 

 further fibres may be produced above the level of the earliest 

 fronds. In the plants sent me by Mr. Patterson, however, 

 the fronds grow singly, ^in. to lin. asunder, and only from the 

 upper or outer half of the circumference of the rhizome ; 

 while the root-fibres (rather long ones) grow from the other 

 half. Such a strange departure from the usual habit of the 

 plant has naturally set me considering the whole question of 

 the growth of ferns, and I have arrived at some conclusions 

 which I think are new, and may therefore be worth stating. 

 This is not the only instance in which there seems a change of 

 habit of growth in these plants according to the conditions 

 under which they are found. The other forms of Asplenium 

 obtusatum, as I have mentioned, all have a tendency to creep 

 slightly and slowly, and this development of the habit in var. 

 lyallii indicates that the plant was properly classed, which 

 had till now been doubtful. Asplenium umbrosum also creeps 

 slowly, and the small variety of it reported from Nelson 

 several years ago by Mr. Kirk, sen., spreads very distinctly 

 and rapidly. Lomaria procera and Polypodium pennigerum 

 also creep occasionally. I used to fancy that the rhizomes 

 had been bent down by accident, and so forced to grow more 



