BY W. W. WATTS. 781 



A T H Y R I U M Roth. 



A. UMBKOSUM (Ait.) PresL, var. australe (R.Br.) Dom. 



Near Josephine Creek, Bartle Frere; July, 1913. 



The typical A. umbrosum comes from the Atlantic Islands. 

 Robert Brown (1810) described the corresponding Australian 

 plants as Allantodia australis and ^1. tenera. Domin notes the 

 commoner Australian form as Athyrium umbrosum var. australe, 

 but says that its difference from the typical Atlantic fern is "not 

 large.'' My specimens (from Josephine Creek) agree with speci- 

 mens in the Sydney Herbarium, collected at Herberton, by Mr. 

 Waller, and at Atherton by Miss Mackenzie. They, however, dif- 

 fer from the common New South Wales form in having much 

 more attenuated pinnae, in showing a more narrowly-winged sec- 

 ondary rhachis, narrower and more closely-set pinnules, and a 

 more delicate texture. A specimen in the Sydney Herbarium, col- 

 lected on the Dorrigo, comes very near to the North Queensland 

 fern. Is this Robert Brown's A. tenera f 

 Var. TENERUM Bail., Fern World of Australia, p.52: Lith. t. 115. 



One or two plants that I collected in a creek, near Tully Falls, 

 (mostly in a young state) appear to me to belong here. 



Bailey, loc. cit., says of var. tenera, that "it isi a more mem- 

 branous form, having darker and more slender stipites. Sori more 

 distant, and the indusium not so much broken at maturity." 

 Domin (p. 57) says that this is an exceptionally delicate fern of 

 very thin texture, with slender dark brown (often blue-brown) 

 stipes, and more deeply coloured rhachis, with distant, shortly but 

 distinctly stipitate pinnules, more distant ultimate segments, and 

 with fewer, narrower, and rather longer indusia. He adds, that 

 the identity of Bailey's var. tenera with Brown's Allantodia 

 tenera is not fully established. 



D I P L A z I u M Sw. 

 D. LATIFOLIUM (Don.) Moore; Asplenium maximmn Don. 



Close to creek, Yungaburra; Aug., 1913. 



The growth of the Yungaburra fern was so much stronger than 

 the form occurring on the Richmond River, that I hesitated in its 



