BY W. W. WATTS. 789 



Hypolepis Bernh. 

 H. TENUiFOLiA (Forst.) Bemli. 

 Stoiiey Creek, Cairns district; July, 1913. 



A D I A N T IJ M L. 

 A. iETHIOPICUM L. 



Banks of Stoney Creek (very large fronds) ; July, 1913. 



A. AFFINE Willd.; A. Cimninghami Hook.; A. ciffine yslv. Ctin- 

 iiinghand C. Moore. 



Cairns district; July-Aug-., 1913; Waller, 1908. 



Christensen (Index Fil.) keeps A. Cunninghami distinct from 

 A. affine, limiting the latter to New Zealand; but specimens of 

 A. affine, from New Zealand, kindly sent to me by Mr. Cheese- 

 man, appear to be Cjuite identical with the Australian fern. The 

 glaucous colour of the frond (one or both surfaces) is fairly 

 characteristic. Frequently, the upper side of the rhachis is densely 

 covered with stififish bent hairs; quite as often, it is ebony-smootli. 

 My North Queensland specimens have, mostly, a smooth rhachis, 

 but one frond is densely hirsute. Specimens collected by Mr. 

 Waller, in 1908, all possess the hairy rhachis. This hirsute form, 

 for the most part, has larger fronds than the glabrous, Tciy own 

 specimen being 30 cm. long and 45 cm. broad. 



In a note, under ^. Cunninghami {A. affine Willd., teste H.B., 

 Syn., p. 117), Hooker (Sp. Fil. ii., No. 107) states that the pin- 

 nules are "very glaucous beneath," the sori "always placed in a 

 notch of a lobe of the margin (not in the sinus between the lobes)"; 

 and, it is added, "the stipes is quite smooth, and the rhachis is 

 everywhere perfectly glabrous." Similarly, H.B., in Syn., 117, 

 "rhachis and surfaces quite naked, the latter very glaucous." 

 Cheeseman (N.Z. Flora, p. 963) says, "quite glabrous, or the sec- 

 ondary rhachises pubescent above." 



I have not access to Willdenow's description, but if it has 

 governed, as no doubt it has, the descriptions of Hooker and 

 Baker, the hirsute form should probably have recognition as var. 

 hirsutum var. nov. 



