SOME NOTEWORTHY NEW ZEALAND FERNS 



L. COCKAYNE 



Christchurch, New Zealand 



However little may be known generally regarding the flora and 

 vegetation of New Zealand, there are few botanists but are aware 

 that ferns occupy a prominent position in both, while many hold 

 an exaggerated opinion as to the part this class of plants plays in 

 the vegetation. In point of fact, however, with the exception in 

 some places of extensive heaths of Pteridium aquilinum var. 

 esculentum, the plant covering, in its broad features, is dominated 

 by dark forest masses on the one hand, ancl, on the other, by brown 

 steppe of tussock-grasses, 1 where ferns play a very subordinate 

 part. 



The 143 species of ferns, belonging to 38 genera, are, for the most 

 part, members of the various rain-forest associations, where they 

 occur in surprising abundance as plants of the lower and middle 

 strata and as lianes and epiphytes. To a lesser degree various 

 species are characteristic of special edaphic non-forest stations. 



Ferns, all the world over, from their intrinsic beautjr, the ease 

 with which they can be dried, and their popularity for decorative 

 purposes are perhaps better known than any other class of plants. 

 The New Zealand fern flora is not backward in this regard, and no 

 more "novelties" need be expected, so far as species go. But the 

 treatment has been essentially floristic, and there is not a species 

 but would afford interesting material for biological consideration, 

 and which might be dealt with from various standpoints, even in 

 the present limited state of knowledge. Here only a few ferns are 

 briefly discussed which appear to supply material for considera- 

 tion of more than mere local interest. 



1 This applies only to primitive New Zealand. Many wide areas are now marked 

 by green meadows and other artificial formations, and, so far as the plant covering, 

 and even the flora go, might be a part of Europe. 



THE PLANT WORLD, VOL. 15, NO. 3, MARCH, 1912 



49 



