378 Transactions. — Botany. 



is also a tufted plant, usually growing in volcanic soil in the 

 immediate vicinity of hot springs, and used to be particularly 

 abundant along the banks of the hot stream which flowed 

 from Rotomahana into Lake Tarawera, from whence I brought 

 a couple of plants a few weeks before the eruption, and had them 

 growing in my greenhouse for about nine years. 



Mr. Allen has since sent me a couple of plants from the Piako 

 Swamp, which present very peculiar features. Instead of the 

 fronds being produced from a crown in the ordinary manner, 

 they grow from a sort of underground caudex about 18 in. long. 

 It is evident that when the plants first grew the surface of the 

 swamp was fully 18 in. below its present level, and that as it 

 has risen, by reason of the growth and decay of the Sphagnum 

 moss, the fern has been compelled to raise its crown higher and 

 higher, so as to avoid being smothered, and reach the daylight. 

 In this way the underground caudex has been formed : but it 

 is evident that this caudex is an elongation of the actual crown. 

 since, instead of the fronds being produced on the top in the 

 ordinary way, they grow out of the sides of the caudex, a foot 

 or more below the surface, and have struggled up through the 

 moss with such difficulty that the actual fronds are very small. 

 and situated at the ends of an extremely long stalk. The plants 

 are evidently very old ones, and as they rose by reason of the 

 greater elevation of the surface of the swamp, the caudices 

 have become forked, in one case into two and in the other 

 into three branches. I have potted the plants in leaf-mould, 

 in order to see whether, under cultivation, they will revert to 

 the ordinary type. 



.Mi'. Allen also sent me a curious specimen from the bank 

 of the Piako Swamp. It has a long stipes, and the frond is 

 branched and slightly crested. The pinnae form parallelograms 

 with two obtuse and two acute angles, and are connected 

 with the rachis. at one of the latter angles, by a short stalk. 

 The edges of the pinnae are indented into short rounded or 

 obtusely pointed lobes. Altogether the specimen at first sight 

 looks like a curious harsh form of Adiantum. On closer in- 

 spection, however, its brown channelled stipes, furnished with 

 scattered scales, shows it not to be an Adiantum, but an ab- 

 normal form of Asfidiniti rickardii, one of our commonest New 

 Zealand terns. 



It is well that fern-collectors should know of these peculiar 

 forms of our ferns, so as to be able to classify their specimens 

 more easily, and therefore 1 send vou these notes. 



