FERNS OF FIJI. 293 



districts of the interior that were not reached by Seemann, Mihie, 

 MacgilKvray, Brackeuridge, and the other collectors whose gather- 

 ings were described in Seemann' s great work. He has added to 

 the fern-flora of the group between thirty and forty species, of 

 which about fifteen appear to be new to science. In the present 

 paper I propose to notice these novelties, only describing the species 

 that are new, and simply to mention those not known in the group 

 before or on which his gatherings have in some way thrown new 

 light. He paid a visit of four weeks to Samoa, but whilst there 

 seems to have met with only a single fern not previously found by 

 Messrs. Powell and Wliitmee. The numbers prefixed to the names 

 indicate where the siDecies fall in the sequence of our ' Synopsis 

 Filicum.' 



47'". Alsophila Hornei, Baker, n. sp. — Trunk 12-16 feet high. 

 Stipe a foot long, nearly black, conspicuously grooved down the 

 frond, unarmed, as are also the black nearly scalelcss rachises, 

 clothed towards the base with firm lanceolate paleae with a brown- 

 black centre and a pale brown edge, and furnished with small de- 

 compound abnormal pinnas like those of Hemitelia {/uiaiiensis and 

 H. setosa. Frond ample, rhomboid, tripinnate, moderately firm in 

 texture, green on both sides, naked above, furnished with coxdIous 

 brown minute bullate membranous scales beneath, the lower pinnae 

 fertile, the upper sterile. Pinnae oblong-lanceolate, the central 

 ones 12-18 in. long, 5-6 in. broad ; pinnules lanceolate, f-1 in. 

 broad, cut down in the lower part to the rachis into crenate linear- 

 oblong tertiary contiguous segments, of which all but the very 

 lowest are adnate by their whole base. Veins 8-10-jugate, distinct, 

 all except the uppermost forked in the tertiary segments of the 

 sterile pinnae. Tertiary segments of the fertile pinnae under ^V iii* 

 broad, not contiguous, distinctly crenate, their whole under surface 

 tilled up with sori, one to each lobe, leaving only a narrow space 

 between the sorus and margin. Sori small (about ^ lin. diam.), 

 16-18 to a fully- developed tertiary segment. Tops of mountain 

 ranges, 2000 feet above sea-level, between Waiwai and Lomaloma, 

 Vanua Levu, common; and also seen in the mountains of Yiti 

 Levu, Home, 620 ! Easily distinguished from all the other 

 Polynesian species by its black rachises, dimorphic pinnae of the 

 main frond, and accessory trichomanoid pinn^ at the base of the 

 stipe. 



Hymenoj^hijllum javaniclun, Spreng. — New to Polynesia. 

 10=^. Trichomanes (jultratum, Baker, n. sp. — Ehizome filiform, 

 wide-creeping. Stipe very short. Lamina suborbicular, entire, 

 ^r in. diam., glabrous, firm in texture for the tribe, the margin - 



entire and naked, the base cuneate or rounded, the midrib distinct /^-^^ 

 above the middle in the sterile fronds, in the deeply emarginate 

 fertile fronds reaching to the deep apical sinus, and bearing a 

 single free funnel-shaped, involucre, with a large spreading two- 

 lobed mouth. Pieceptacle not protruded. Veins radiating flabel- 

 lately from the sides and tip of the midrib. Sori never more than 

 one to a frond. On trunks of trees in shady woods of Bua, Vanua 

 Levu, Home, 1078 ! Closely aUied to T'. Motleyi, V. D. B. 



