Colenso. — On the Ferns of Neiv Zealand. 219 



pairs sessile, decuvrent, the terminal one very acuminate, often 

 caudate ; segments large, open, not crowded, spreading, mostly 

 5 (sometimes 6-7) pairs, opposite and regular, their margins 

 and apices coarsely and deeply incised ; the lowest pair free, 

 narrow, oblong, largely pinuatind, base cuneate ; the upper ones 

 deltoid, broad, (their tips sometimes largely and irregularly 

 bilobed,) their anterior margins almost straight, sometimes sub- 

 falcate, their bases largely decurrent ; apices obtuse, sometimes 

 bifid ; sinuses narrow ; veins few, distant, clear, the basal veins 

 free, with 6-7 long narrow areoles on each side of midrib of 

 pinnule (generally from costule to costule), and 4-5 areoles on 

 each side of costule of segment, and both extending nearly to tips ; 

 the outer veins free, forked, and branched to margins ; some- 

 times a single second-series areole is formed between the costule 

 areoles and outer free veins in the broader segments. Stipes 

 7-9 inches long, rather slender, glabrous, shining, channelled 

 above, straw-coloured and dark-brown towards base, with a few 

 scattered scales below. Scales dark-brown, subulate, 3^ lines 

 long, + line broad at base, very acuminate, tip produced and 

 truncate, margin flexuous, netted, cells large longitudinal sub- 

 parallelogramic, walls dark and double, with oval and round dark 

 (stomate-like) bodies scattered in them. Sori in short narrow 

 lines (and dots) on central margins of segments both sides, not 

 at sinus nor near tips, the upper half of segment generally bar- 

 ren ; sometimes the sori are more continuous on the upper 

 decurrent wings on the main rhachis. Involucre whitish, ex- 

 ceedingly narrow, ^th inch wide (soon becoming reverted and 

 hidden by the sori), delicate, pellucid, very curiously reticulated, 

 the cells large with exceedingly fine and tortuous margins ; 

 margins of involucre entire, very slightly sinuous. Sporangia 

 broadly obovate, sub-sessile, dark-brown, bursting in themiddlte, 

 and so separating into two cups, their membrane pellucid, 

 reticulated. Sporules triquetrous, angles obtuse, dark-brown, 

 roughish ; margins entire with a double line and transverse 

 bands. 



Hab. Ever shaded wet-dripping gravelly cliffs (among other 

 ferns and shrubs), banks of a stream south of Danneverke 

 Township, County of Waipawa ; 1887: W.C. 



Obs. I. This species of fern is nearest to our endemic New 

 Zealand fern Pteris (Litubrochia) macilenta, A. Richard, but differs 

 from it in several particulars — as habit, size, and outline of 

 frond, and shape of pinnae, pinnules, and segments ; in its lobes 

 being wholly and largely incised, the terminal ones being exces- 

 sively narrow and caudate ; its veins much more anastomosing 

 and also branched ; its lines of sori smaller and more scattered, 

 and their involucres being very much narrower and of a different 

 substance. 



