Colenso. — On the Ferns of New Zealand. 221 



or deltoid, cuneate at the base petiolate, pinnatifid, terminal 

 ones elongate acuminate, lobes oblong or ovate acute, coarsely 

 inciso-serrate at the apex, basal veins forming a single arc and 

 2 or 3 large areoles on each side of the costule of the segments, 

 the rest of the veins free ;" and again, he says, " the pinnules are 

 small, and there are but few areoles, and those confined to the 

 costa and costule [not extending to the apex of the latter), the rest 

 of the veins are free." (I.e.) 



V. Sir J. D. Hooker also, says, in his greatly enlarged 

 specific description of Pt. (Litob.) macilenta,* " Venis rarius fur- 

 cutis nunc basi anastomosantibus. Soris siuubis latis continuis ;" 

 and, further on, " pinnules . . . the lobes oblong, sharp, 

 sharply coarsely toothed towards the tip. Sori continuous in the 

 hollows.'' And in' his still later work (" Handbook N.Z. Flora," 

 p. 364), he says, " Costa flexuous, pinnules scattered . . ovate- 

 oblong, veins forked, netted towards their base only. Sori in the 

 notches broad." And this statement of his, twice repeated, viz., 

 " soris sinubis latis continuis ; " and, " sori in the notches broad ; " 

 agrees not only with Richard's figure, but most particularly so 

 with his magnified dissections of the sori and their broad in- 

 volucre covering than. And to this may also be added Baker's 

 remark on this fern, " Rhachis flexuose, veins fine, not anasto- 

 mosing much except the costal arches." ("Synops. Fil.,"p. 171.) 



I have observed (supra) that this fern, Pteris (Lit.) pendula, 

 is more nearly allied to Pt. (Lit.) macilenta, of all our New 

 Zealand ferns. It is, however, also pretty closely allied to Pt. 

 (Lit.) cndlicheriana ; and so serving, as it were, as an inter- 

 mediary to unite in a still more natural sequence the New Zea- 

 land and South Pacific ferns of the Litobrochia section of the 

 Pteris genus. I may further notice that this fern is a'so very 

 near to the ( 'ampteria section of that large genus, from which it 

 only differs in its outer veins being branched as well as forked ; 

 while its excessively narrow involucre allies it equally with the 

 Plutyloma section of the closely allied and scarcely distinct 

 genus Pellcca : indeed, it seems in all its characters to unite all 

 four sections, Eupteris, Cumpterii, and LJtubroclua, of the genus 

 Pteris, together with Platyloma of Pelhra. 



Having stated this, I may also quote here a similar observa- 

 tion made by Sir W. J. Hooker on another of our New Zealand 

 ferns and its compound venation, Pt. incisa, viz.: " We shall 

 find that one well-known species (Pt. incisa) unites in itself 

 three kinds of venation, that of true Pteris, of Campteria, and 

 Litobrochia ; and other species present quite intermediate 

 characters." (" Sp. Fih," vol. ii., p. 207.) 



My mentioning Pt. incisa reminds me of what A. Richard 

 had also said of that fern, in his original description of Pt. 



"Flora N.Z. ," vol. ii., p. 26. 



