257 



ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE FERNS OF LORD 

 HOWE ISLAND. 



By the Rev. W. Walter Watts. 



These Notes are the rev^ult, i^artly of the observations made by 

 Mr. R. B. Oliver, of Auckland, during a recent trip, and partly of 

 my own further investigations. 



i. Polystichum. 



In my paper on ''The Ferns of Lord Howe Island" (These Pro- 

 ceedings, 1912, p. 395), I referred to the fern known on the Island 

 as the ''Heavy Fern," as Polystichum Moorei Christ. This was due 

 to the fact that this fern was so named in the National Herbarium, 

 Sydney, and that the late Mr. E. Bete he had made the following- 

 note on the cover: ''Not specifically different from Aspidium adi- 

 antiforme (Forst.) J.Sm., {A. capense Willd.), according to KeAv, 

 but Christensen supports the view of Christ, and keeps it as a dis- 

 tinct species." I did not attempt to go behind this; and when Dr. 

 Christ wrote, after examining the small fern that Edward King 

 had collected for me, that it appeared to him to be but an umbra- 

 geous variety of F. Moorei, I took it for granted that he was com- 

 paring it with the so-called "Heavy Fern," and, therefore, set up 

 the smaller one as a new species, under the name, Polystichum 

 Kingii. Mr. Oliver was the fii-st to suggest a doubt regarding the 

 identity of Dr. Christ's P. Moorei; and the result of further in- 

 quirj^, ending in a letter from Dr. Christ himself, was the convic- 

 tion that P. Moorei (originally returned as P. aculeatum, var. 

 Moorei) was not the "heavy fern," but was identical with my P. 

 Kingii. The position now stands thus: P. Kingii becomes n 



