Field. — On a New Fern. 449 



grow closely together so as to form crowns on top of erect 

 rhizomes ; and the aerial roots which surround the caudices 

 of tree-ferns are merely the counterparts of those which, in 

 creeping varieties, descend into the soil and sustain the life of 

 the plant. 



In the letter which I received on the 2nd March Mr. 

 Patterson- also sent me a pinna and an impression (evidently 

 produced by a copying-press and then traced round with a 

 sharp pencil) of a small frond of what he thought was a Lygo- 

 dium. He said that he had received the specimens from a Mrs. 

 "Wilson, of Christchurch, who had gathered them at Eotorua. 

 On writing to that lady she informed me that she first saw a 

 specimen of the plant twined round the hat of a Maori in the 

 telegraph-office at Eotorua ; tha,t she got him to allow her to 

 examine it ; and that a few days later she and her daughter 

 found the plant growing plentifully in a locality at Waiwera, 

 which she described. I naturally concluded that Waiwera was 

 some part of Eotorua, or close to it, though I did not know 

 any place thereabouts bearing the name, and people who had 

 lived at Ohinemutu for several years were equally ignorant 

 of it. I have since learnt that Mrs. Wilson meant the 

 watering-place north of Auckland. Along with her reply she 

 most kindly sent me a specimen of the fern — a spray nearly 

 2ft. long, from which I found that there could be no ques- 

 tion as to the plant being a Lyg odium, and different from 

 any described in the " Synopsis Filicurn." Mrs. Wilson said 

 that she found the plant about eleven years ago, and only 

 gathered specimens to press, but that she afterwards procured 

 three plants, one of which she gave to Mr. Patterson, and 

 still had the other two. She has since sent me a rooted off- 

 set from one of her plants, which is now producing two fresh 

 fronds. Mr. Patterson also writes that there are three new 

 fronds on his plant, so that the present existence of the 

 species is beyond doubt. It is rather remarkable that, of 

 so small a class as Lygodium, a second species should turn 

 up in New Zealand, and that both should be quite distinct 

 from any found elsewhere. The only one described in the 

 " Synopsis Filicurn " which at all resembles the new one is 

 L. palmatum, of the eastern States of North America; but 

 even this differs in the length of the secondary petioles; in the 

 shape of the ultimate pinnules, these being wider than they 

 are long, while those of the new plant are the reverse ; and in 

 being merely pinnate, while the new one is very distinctly 

 bipinnate in the lower and larger pinnae. The plant seems to 

 vary a good deal in the relative proportions of its several 

 parts. Generally stated, however, the primary petioles are 

 short, the secondary ones long (sometimes more than an 

 inch), and the third ones short or medium : these, as well as 

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