CoLENSo. — On the Tree-Ferns of New Zealand, 255 



luxuriantly upon their trunks, completely enwrapping them 

 below, especially in low, wet, shaded woods. 



Other and larger ferns than those mentioned are not unfre- 

 queutly to be met with, depending from the trunks of the tree- 

 ferns, as Hymenophyllnm dilatatwn, H. demission, H. midtijidum, 

 Asplenmm falcatum, A. flaccidum, and Polypodium (species) ; also 

 Lycopodiion varium ; but then these are much more common and 

 plentiful elsewhere, both on trees and on the ground. 



II. — Pabticular, or Uncommon. 

 Under this heading I wish to state what I have more recently 

 seen, which, indeed, is the main cause of my writing this paper. 

 During the last three to four years I have noticed some extra- 

 ordinary things pertaining to the tree-ferns. 



1. As to their great number in one spot, and their manner of 

 growth there. — In certain unfrequented localities in the dense 

 forest of the Seventy-mile Bush, which I explored at different 

 times, I suddenly came upon two or three groves of tree-ferns : 

 one in particular I will attempt to describe. On a flat in the 

 heart of the forest, in a deep hollow lying between steep hills, 

 the bottom of which for want of drainage was very wet and 

 uneven, and contained much deep vegetable mud and water 

 even in the driest summer season, I found a large and con- 

 tinuous grove or thicket of very tall tree-ferns, chiefly Dicksonia 

 squarrosa, and D. fibrosa, with a few of Cyathea dealbata inter- 

 mixed, with but few forest trees and shrubs growing scattered 

 among them. I suppose they occupied about 3 roods of ground, 

 and I estimated their number to be from 800 to 1,000. They 

 were all lofty, from 25 to 35 feet high, and in many places 

 growing so close together that it was impossible to force one's 

 way through them. Their trunks were most profusely covered 

 with the usual epiphytal ferns (those smaller ones already 

 mentioned). Conspicuous, however, among them, was that 

 very rare fern in these parts, Hymenophyllum subtilissimum, 

 Kunze, {H. frankliniarum, Col.,*) which literally clothed their 

 trmiks from top to base, intermixing below in the more humid 

 spots with a fine dendroid Phigiochila (sp. nov.) of most luxu- 

 riant growth. t The ground, too, with rotting logs and stumps 

 below, was densely covered with various fine Hepatica of several 

 genera, (as Plaijiocldla, Gottschea, Lepidozia, Mastir/obryum, Podo- 

 mitrium, Symphyoyyna, etc.,) while here and there among them 

 were several lovely and rare mosses of the genera Hypopterygium, 

 Cyatrophorum, and Hookeria ; and on the higher and drier stumps 

 and mounds grew graceful undisturbed cushions of Leucobryiim 

 candidum, plentifully in fruit, rather a rare occurrence. 



* Hymenopliyllum ceruginosum, Carm., of " Handbook N.Z. Flora." 

 t The description of this fine species will be given in a following paper. 



