377 



SOME CPvYPTOGAMIC NOTES FROM THE BOTANIC 



GARDENS, SYDNEY. 



By the Rev. W. Walter Watts. 



(Plate XX.) 



This paper deals with Ferns and Mosses. Two new species 

 and one new variety are described. Notes are added concerning 

 other species, including some new records. A new Tribe of the 

 Polypodiacece is also proposed and defined. 



Ferns. 

 i. 



DRYOPTERiDEiE : a Suggested new Tribe of the Polypodiaceff. 



It was long the custom to classify a large section of the Poly- 

 podidcecp. on the basis of the presence, or absence, of a superior 

 indusium. The species bearing such indusium were classed as 

 the Aspidiere (do-Trt?, a shield), while those lacking such indusium 

 were the Polypodiect. Under this classification, the genus 

 Aspidium covered a large range of species and numerous sub- 

 genera. But it was at length realised that, by this arrange- 

 ment, ferns that had many natural affinities, especially in frond- 

 formation and venation, were needlessly and unscientifically 

 kept apart. Hence the conviction that the older classification 

 attached undue importance to the presence, or absence, of an 

 indusium - a conclusion that was strengthened by the discovery 

 of exindusiate forms of indusiate species, and by the fact that, 

 in some supposedly exindusiate species, traces had been found of 

 a small and extremely fugacious indusium. 



In these circumstances, an old genus of Adanson's, dating 

 back to 1763, was revived and expanded, viz., Dryopteris, a 

 genus, as the name implies, consisting of ferns whose fronds 

 showed a supposed resemblance to the oak-leaf. I have not 



