CoLENSo. — On some New Ferns. 265 



margins entire, very thin, not extending beyond margin of 

 lobe. Scales (basal) deltoid-acuminate, 3 lines long, their 

 margins distantly serrate-lobed, tips very narrow-elongated; 

 cells large, unequal, parallelogrammatic, and extending to 

 tips, their margins black and very stout. 



Hab. Hills (altitude 2,000 ft.) near Eangiora, North Can- 

 terbury ; 1898 : Mr. T. Keir. 



Obs. This strikingly neat little fern is allied to A. colensoi, 

 Hook, f., with which it has been hitherto classed, but is 

 very distinct in many particulars — in colour, size, form, and 

 general appearance ; its pinnas are more regular and closer, 

 all pinnules free, many-lobed, and stipitate ; scales larger and 

 differently shaped. 



Genus 8. Cystopteris, Bernh. 



1. G. laciniatus, sp. nov. 



■ Plant terrestrial, tufted, suberect and drooping, mem- 

 branaceous, glabrous, light-green. Stipe slender, flattish 

 above and slightly canaliculate, subsucculent, pale, 3^in.- 

 4 J in. long, a few small scales and reddish hairs at base and 

 scattered scales a short distance up stipe ; scales very deli- 

 cate, light-brown, ovate-acuminate-caudate. Frond ovate and 

 ovate-deltoid, much acuminate, 6 in. -8 in. long, 4in.-4i-in. 

 wide, bipinnate (subtripinnate lower pinnae) ; pinnae suboppo- 

 site, patent, horizontal, loose, distant below closer above, 

 rhachis very slender ; pinnules distant, stipitate, pinnatifid, 

 deltoid-acuminate, acute, lowermost with 8-10 segments ; 

 segments stipitate, ovate, obtuse, decurrent ; secondary seg- 

 ments ovate, deeply cut or lohed ; lobes irregular, laciniate, 

 sharply toothed, tips truncate and bifid, veined ; veins white, 

 decurrent, and collateral on stipes of pinnules. Sori numerous, 

 small, distant, scattered, blackish, shining, central on vein, 

 regular, 2-4 on a segment, extending to ultimate lobe. In- 

 volucre small, oblong, tip obtuse, retuse, sometimes bifid and 

 lacerate, very membranous, white, shining, sparsely echinate, 

 margins entire ; at first covering sorus. 



Hab. North Canterbury, New Zealand; 1898: Mr. T. Keir, 

 Bangiora. 



Obs. It is not without some doubt, and much research and 

 long examination, that I describe this fern as a new species, 

 for it is certainly pretty closely allied to G. fragilis, Bernh., 

 and its varieties. It differs, however, considerably from them 

 all, and did I not possess ample correct botanical drawings 

 with dissections of them (Hooker's "British Perns" and 

 "Flora Tasmaniae," Beddome's "Ferns of British India," &c.) 

 I should hesitate to do so. This fern, however, is much 

 larger, and possesses characters which those ferns do not. 



