Om lAlJfBSAYA VIKIDIS OF COLENSO. 109 



" I enclose you some specimens of the fern known to JS'ew Zealand 

 filicists as Lindsaya viridis, but which it seems has either been sup- 

 pressed altogether or classed with L. tricJ.ommioides in the Species 

 Filicum. As Mr. Buchanan regards this as a mistake, and as my duties 

 as engineer of roads for this part of the colony, where it seems more 

 plentiful than elsewhere, had led to my noticing it particularly, he has 

 asked me to point out to you the differences between it and L. tricho- 

 mcmoides. L. tricliomanoides grows only in dense dark bush, on rich soil. 

 It is of a dark-green colour, and usually grows erect, and in height of 

 from six to nine inches. In this form it is sometimes called L Lessoni. 

 On steep hill-sides, however, it assumes a pendulous growth, and pro- 

 duces fronds sometimes as much as two feet long. In this latter form 

 it becomes more straggling in its growth, smaller in the pinnules, and 

 often truly tri-pinnate. The increase, however, is in the length of 

 the fronds, and not in their width ; but their character remains un- 

 changed in one particular—viz., that the lower pinnaB are still the 

 longest. L. 'viridis, on the other hand, grows only on the faces of 

 sandstone cliffs exposed to the full glare of the sun. It often covers a 

 considerable space, and its bright-green colour, contrasting with the 

 sombre tint common to our JSew Zealand vegetation, makes it very 

 attractive. It grows only about nine inches long. I find it will grow 

 only in a pendulous position, tor if potted and placed upright the ends 

 of the fronds wither directly ; but if the pot be placed on its side, so 

 as to allow the fronds to hang naturally, they thrive well. You will 

 see it is truly tripinnate, without being straggly in its growth, and that 

 the middle pinnae are the longest. Z. trichomanoides grows from a 

 creeping rhizome sending up detached fronds. It is true they often 

 grow three or four together, and thus have somewhat the look of a 

 tuft, but closer examination shows that each frond springs separately 

 from the rhizome, so that the apparent tuft is due only to some check 

 which the rhizome has received in its growth, or to its having reached 

 some nutriment which has increased its local fertility. L. viridis, on 

 the other hand, has no trace of rhizome, but is distinctly a tufted 

 fern, in old specimens of which, like the one enclosed, an actual 

 caudex becomes developed. 



" In Z. trichomanoides the pinnules or segments are rounded, smooth 

 at their edges, and have the sorus curving round them. In Z. viridis 

 they are cut squarely, have very distinctly toothed edges ; and the sori 

 run straight across, without curving downwards at all. 



"There is also a difference in the appearance of the sori them- 

 selves, which disappears to a great extent during the process of 

 drying (though the fuller look of those of viridis still partially indi- 

 cates it), but it is very perceptible when the plants are growing. In 

 trichomanoides the plates of the sorus join each other at both ends at 

 an acute angle, while those of viridis are connected in a blunt oblong, 

 giving each pinnule a distinct flattened trumpet shape, in the inside 

 of which the fructification shows very prominently. The sori of 

 viridis are also larger in proportion to the size of the pinnules. No 

 doubt the two ferns are closely allied, but still I think with Mr. 

 Buchanan, that the above differences are suflSLcient to entitle viridis to 

 mention as a distinct variety or type of Z. trichomanoides.'" 



I had combined the plant, not with L. trichomanoides, but with 



