Colenso. — On the Fei~ns of New Zealand. 231 



oblique and peculiarly unequal- sided ; fewer veinlets, with only 

 one basal pair uniting and forming a long narrow costal areole ; 

 sori also in unequal series on the lobes ; and the involucre large, 

 persistent, differently shaped and ciliate. All these characters 

 are the opposite of those of .V. unitum ; as given respectively by 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, Bentham, Baker, and Beddome ; while the 

 drawing of N. unitum with dissections (" Beddome' s Ferns of 

 South India," tab. 78) shows a very different plant. So also 

 his drawings of other closely allied species, as N. terminans, J. 

 Sm., N. propinquum, Br., N. externum, Hook., and N. pteroides, 

 J. Sm. (loc. cit.), all of them being also Australian ferns, and 

 much nearer to N. unitum than any of them are to this species. 

 Having had plenty of good specimens, and that, too, in their 

 fresh state, with ample works of reference at hand, I have, I 

 trust, fully settled this inquiry. 



Genus 21. Nephrolepis, Schott. 



1. N. flexuosa, sp. nov. 



Caudex subterranean, erect, 6-8 inches (or more) long, com- 

 posed of a harsh somewhat woody flexuous rhizome, some 

 broken stipites and many long wiry rigid branching and spread- 

 ing glossy rootlets ; vernation fasciculate. Stipes 3-6 inches 

 long, semi-terete at top, cylindrical at base, slender, brittle, 

 reddish, glossy, hairy. Fronds erect, mostly 12-20 (sometimes 

 23-26) inches high, linear-lanceolate, attenuated above and 

 below, tip acute ; rhachis slender, channelled above, brown, 

 shaggy with long flexuous red fimbriate scales or compound 

 hairs; pinnate, usually 1 - If; inches wide (sometimes 1^ — If 

 inches) at the widest part, green, glabrous, glossy, with cre- 

 taceous dots on upper surface directly over the clavate tips of 

 veins ; pinnae varying in number on a frond from 60 to 100, 

 and even to 140 (rarely) on each side of rhachis, \ inch long, 

 2-2-J lines wide, alternate, distant (sometimes close-set), 

 obliquely-oblong, tips broad ; very small above at apex, small 

 and orbicular and very distant at base ; patent, upper margin 

 straight sometimes very slightly curved ; midrib dark-coloured, 

 flexuous, not reaching to apex of pinna, sub 3-branched at 

 base ; margins somewhat crenate-incised with few distant 

 irregular incisions, their outer edges straight ; tips rounded 

 crenate ; anterior base of pinnae largely auricled upwards, 

 auricle cordate, rounded, entire and imbricating rhachis, its 

 margins recurved ; the posterior base scarcely sub-cordate, often 

 slightly excised ; petiolulate, the petiole inserted in an oval 

 excavation in the epidermis of the rhachis, with additional hairs 

 at the junction. Veins rather obscure, few, free, 12- 16-jugate 

 in larger pinnas, bases dark as midrib, forked only, not extending 

 to margins ; tips orbicular, clavate. Sori large, biserial on the 



