6l# Transactions. — Botany. 



3. A. affine, Willd., var. heterophyllum, Col. 



Plant pale green, sub-erect, 10-14 inches high, forming 

 large tufts. Stipes 6-8 inches long, slender, dry, smooth, 

 glossy, and dark-red-brown (as also are the rhachis and stipes 

 of pmnae), flexuous, sub-angular above semi-terete below, with 

 a few short hairs at base. Frond bipinnate, sub-ovate-acumi- 

 nate, 5-7 inches long, few branched below ; branches simply 

 pinnate, their tips crested, spreading in 2-8 short and close 

 branchlets, each with a large and broad 2-3-lobed laciniate and 

 toothed ultimate pinna. Pinnae very irregular, large and small 

 mixed, of various sizes and shapes, narrow cultriform with 

 obtuse tips, and sub-cuneate, 2-9 lines long, 1-2$ lines broad, 

 the lower margin entire and curved upwards at tip, the upper 

 laciniate and toothed, teeth white ; stipitate, stipes capillary, 

 rather long. Sori small, few (1-2-5) and rather distant on a 

 pinna, on the upper margin only. Involucre orbicular-cordate, 

 pale flecked with brown dashes, dark brown in age, shining, 

 turgid ; sinus narrow. 



Hab. On limestone crags at Moteo, Puketapu District, near 

 Napier ; 1885 : Mr. A. Hamilton. 



Obs. This is a curious and rather neat-shaped little fern, 

 apparently a variety only of our more common Aihnntum ; 

 though some of its characters (apart from the crested tips of its 

 rhachis and branches) may prove to be distinct and grave enough 

 to make it a good species. I have seen and examined several 

 specimens, and find them pretty uniform in character, while 

 varying a little in size. 



Genus 15. Pteris, Linn. 



§ 2. LlTOBROCHIA. 



1. P. (L.) pendula, sp. nov. 



Plant csBspitose, of 4-6 fronds ; caudex very short, scarcely 

 any, composed of old stipites ; roots numerous, fibrous, long, 

 slender, spreading. Frond pendulous, broadly deltoid, 10-12 

 (rarely 14) inches long, membranaceous, glabrous, shining, but 

 filled with minute sub-rugulose dots, flaccid, flat, green ; rhachis 

 straight, pale stramineous, bipinnate (the larger specimens 

 tripinnate below) ; ultimate pinna of frond very long (3-5 

 inches), narrow-ovate- or lanceolate-acuminate, segments oppo- 

 site 7-10-jugate, very distant and decurrent (which decunence 

 is sometimes continued down to below the third pair of pinna 

 from base), the tip very narrow acuminate-caudate ; pinna 

 opposite, few, 4-6 pairs, distant, spreading, ovate-acuminate, 

 their rhachiscs straight ; petioles slender, the three lower pairs 

 about £ inch long ; pinnules alternate, distant, ovate-acuminate ; 

 2-2-| inch long, 3-4 pairs on each secondary rhachis, the lowest 

 (or lowest 2) on rather long and slender petioles, the upper 



