II.— BOTANY, 



Art. XXVI. — A Description of some Nezvly Discovered Indi 

 genous Neic Zealand Ferns. 



By W. CoLENso, F.E.S., F.L.S. (Lond.). 



{Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 10th October, 



1898.] 



Class III. CEYPTOGAMIA. 



Order I. Filices. 



Genus 5. Hymenophyllum, Smith. 



1. H. alpinum, sp. nov. 



Plant small, terrestrial, creeping, glabrous, caudex very 

 long, horizontal, intermixed, bare, with a few small fine red 

 hairs scattered on rootlets. Stipe fiexuous, suberect, slender, 

 wiry, 2 in. -3 in. long, woody, terete, smooth. Frond tri- 

 subquadripinnate, deltoid, |in.-2in. long, generally much 

 recurved and compacted, dark-green, frequently possessing 

 reddish spots, and bearing a rusty tinge (red-brown in age) ; 

 main rhachis bare below, above with subrhachises narrowly 

 winged, serrate; pinnse irregularly and closely overlapping, 

 ultimate pinnules subflabelliform ; lobes narrow-linear, trun- 

 cate, coarsely serrate ; tips sometimes dilated and 2-3 ser- 

 rulate ; single-veined ; veins stout, not extending to tips. 

 Involucres very few, solitary, supra-axillary in upper pinnae, 

 free, substipitate, pale-green ; valves rather large, cut nearly 

 to base, oblong ; tips broad ; margins entire, pm-plish ; re- 

 ceptacle stout ; capsules large, compact. 



Hab. Euahine Mountain-range, alpine woods, east side ; 

 1898 : Mr. H. Hill. Same mountain-range, common ; 1845-52 : 

 W.C. 



Obs. I. This species is near H. truncatum, Col. (Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xxiii., p. 390), but differs from that species in 

 several characters, particularly in its very long, wiry, flexuous, 

 bare, and glabrous stipe, which is also remarkably tough, 

 though extremely slender ; its fruiting fronds are very few. 



II. This fern is the mountain species referred to above : 

 I.e., p. 391. 



