Field. — Notes on Ferns. 377 



Scrophularinacece. 

 Veronica elliptica, Forst. /., var. 



Compositce. 

 Sonchus asper, Hill. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXIII. 



Vegetation near edge of cliffs of larger island, showing zonal arrange- 

 ment of plants, Open Bay Islands. In centre, the fern Asplenium obtusa- 

 tum ; in foreground and to left, the sedge Carex comans ; nearer to 

 edge here and there may be seen the zone of Tillcea moschata ; in back- 

 ground, shrubs of Veronica elliptica, var., as noted in paper. 



Art. XXXIX. — Notes on Ferns. 



By H. C. Field. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 1st June, 1904.] 



In previous papers I have mentioned peculiar forms of • our 

 New Zealand ferns, of which examples had been sent to me by 

 persons who had experienced difficulty in identifying them ; 

 and I now note the following : — 



Towards the end of last year a Miss Allen sent me a pressed 

 frond of a fern which she had gathered in the bush between 

 Rotorua and Tauranga. It was unmistakably a barren frond 

 of Lomaria vulcanica, and only differed from the normal type 

 in being of a bright yellowish-green instead of the usual dark- 

 olive. Her brother, however, has since sent me other specimens, 

 which explain why there had been difficulty in classifying the 

 plant. Lomaria vulcanica is usually a tufted fern, producing 

 a crown of fronds, and this is sometimes raised 2 in. or 3 in. 

 above the ground on a short caudex. Old plants often produce 

 external crowns, and spread in this way over a space of 1 ft., 

 or nearly so, in diameter. The form, however, which Miss Allen 

 found has widely spreading creeping rhizomes, about J in. in 

 diameter, dark-brown in colour, and slightly scaly, from which 

 the fronds grow at intervals of several inches. It is evident 

 that this fern, like several others of our New Zealand ones, 

 occurs in two forms, and I think it would be well to distinguish 

 this creeping variety as " re pens." 



Miss Allen afterwards sent me, from the Piako Swamp, some 

 fronds of what she supposed to be the Nephrodium thelypteris, 

 but which proved to be Nephrodium unitum. This latter fern 



