786 FERNS OF NORTH QUEENSLAND, 



Subgenus Lomaria. 

 B. PATERSONi(R.Br.) Mett.; Stegania raterso7n"R.br. 

 (?)Var. ELONGATUM (Bl.) H.B., JSyn. 



Raveiislioe; Aug., 1913. 



Robert Brown's original description of S. Patersoni was, "fron- 

 dibus indivisis; sterili ensiformi-lanceolata crenulata; I'ertili lin- 

 earis." Domin, therefore, makes the form with the undivided 

 fronds var. normale, and separates the plants with divided fronds 

 under the name var. elongatum, following Hooker and others. 

 This hard-and-fast distinction, I am unable to uphold. On the 

 Richmond River, I frequently saw B. Patersoni, and, almost in- 

 variably, divided and undivided fronds, grew from the same rhi- 

 zome, which bears out Bentham's remark (F. Austr., vii., 735), 

 ^'from almost all the Australian localities there are specimens 

 with undivided and with pinnatifid fronds, and sometimes the 

 two from the same rhizome." In the Sydney Herbarium, there 

 are several specimens with undivided fronds, but in one case, 

 attached to a common rhizome, there are both divided and un- 

 divided fronds, though the divisions in the pinnatifid fronds are 

 limited in number, not more than two or three. In this specimen, 

 both kinds of fronds are quite typical in their form, and in tlie 

 possession of crenulate margins. The plants came from the 

 Tweed River, in the far north of New South Wales. Another 

 specimen, collected in the Port Jackson district, possesses small 

 undivided fronds, but also one large frond with two subopposite 

 divisions a little less than halfway up, and a very long (40 cm.) 

 apical continuation, which is 3-5 cm. wide in the broadest part; 

 along with it, is a fertile frond much and linearly divided. Another 

 specimen (from the Richmond River)has both undivided and much- 

 divided fronds with the typical crenulate margins. In the light of 

 these specimens, the var. elongatum is scarcely tenable. But, on 

 the other hand, my own specimens (from Ravenshoe) and speci- 

 mens collected at Herberton by Mr. Waller, both having undivided 

 as well as pinnatifid fronds, show a somewhat different facies, are 

 of a thinner texture (so that the venation is perfectly clear), have 

 entire or almost entire margins, except at the apex of the lobes, 



