496 Transactions. 



of young Lomaria filiformis, but seemed too thick and harsh 

 to be so. It was also a tufted plant, having a crown of about 

 a dozen fronds, without any sign of the creeping roots which 

 are characteristic of L. filiformis. The plant grew well, but 

 it was not till near the end of the following year that it began 

 to produce fertile fronds, which were rose-coloured when young. 

 This is so common with Lomaria lanceolata, particularly when 

 growing on limestone soil, that I thought the plant might be 

 a peculiar northern form of that fern. As the new fronds de- 

 veloped I saw that the plant was a Doodia, though different 

 from either D. media or D. caudata, both of which I have had 

 growing for many years. It has more of the peculiar tailed 

 pinnae of D. caudata, and differs from D. media in many respects. 

 I have had plants of D. media, not only from the neighbour- 

 hood of Wanganui, but from Wellington, Nelson, and Auck- 

 land, and they were precisely similar in every case. There 

 were never more than three or at most four fronds on a crown, 

 and these were lanceolate. In fact, I never could see any dif- 

 ference between D. media and the Australian D. aspera, except 

 that the former was a much larger plant, and had rather fewe 1 ' 

 fronds. The new Auckland plant has no less than twenty-one 

 fronds, and these, instead of being lanceolate, have their pinnae 

 of nearly equal length throughout, and these shorten and taper 

 rapidly towards the apex of the frond. The pinnae are also 

 far shorter and more obtusely pointed than those of D. media. 

 Thus, though approximating to the latter, the fern is of a far 

 more handsome and compact habit — so much so that I think it 

 worthy of being separately classed, and would suggest Doodia 

 aucklandica as a fit name for it. 



In July, 1903, I received a parcel of ferns from Waikanae. 

 They had been taken up with lumps of earth in which theA' 

 grew, but as they had been several days out of the ground. 

 and reached me late in the day, I potted them without much 

 examination. There were several plants of Botrychium ter- 

 natum, variety cicutarium, and what appeared to be a cluster 

 of Botrychia growing close together. The plant grow well, 

 but I paid no particular attention to it till I put it in as one 

 of a collection of ferns exhibited at our spring horticultural 

 show on the 30th November. During the show the Eev. Z. 

 Spencer, who has collected ferns for very many years, and has 

 the best collection of pressed specimens of any one in Wanganui. 

 remarked that I seemed to have wrongly labelled the plant. 

 and that it seemed to him to be a Pteris, though one wh.ii 

 he did not know. This caused me to observe the plant more 

 carefully, and I found that he was right. The plant is clearly 

 a Pteris, but differs materiallv from either of those vet classified 



