370 NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND FERNS. 



alpina with unusually tender foliage, owing to its growing in a dry 

 soil, and among high scrub into which no wind can penetrate, 

 hi stead of in its usual habitat of siDhagnum swamp exposed to light 

 and air. 



Doodia caudata is, I believe, quite distinct from D. media, unless 

 they are divergent forms of some plant not found in the colony. 

 They grow in quite different situations, the former being an alpine 

 and the latter a littoral plant ; and D. caudata is very rare, being 

 confined to two or three localities. Indeed what the Maoris (who 

 held it sacred) regard as the true "■ Mokemoke" is confined to one 

 • part of the Wairarapa, where it grows on a spur of the Rimutaka 

 range, and where it has a rather strong aromatic odour between 

 those of thyme and tobacco. There is a difference, too, in the 

 habits of the plants, D. media producing only a single caudex, 

 while that of 1). caudata parts into a number of lateral ones, and 

 so produces a much thicker mass of foliage. The foliage, too, is 

 widely different, the barren fronds of D. caudata, when true to type, 

 being shaped like shamrock leaves, and the fertile ones having the 

 two small round lateral lobes and a very long central one (some- 

 times one inch and a half long) with slightly serrated edges. 



Aspleniiim obtusatum and A. falcatum often strongly resemble 

 each other, but they can be readily distinguished by noting that, 

 in all forms of the former, the sori are set obliquely to the costa, 

 but parallel to each other, while in the latter they form lines 

 radiating from the stalk of the pinnae. A. Hookerianum varies 

 from simply pinnate to tri- or quadri-pinnate, and from coriaceous 

 to almost filmy in texture, in different soils and localities. A. 

 hulbifenim has occasionally quite lanceolate fronds. It assumes aU 

 sorts of types, from nearly simply pinnate to trij)innate, and seems 

 to pass into other kinds. I have specimens scarcely distinguishable 

 from A. Hookerianum and A. Colensoi, except by their colour, and, 

 of course, the bulbs; and I think that A. Richardi is only a form 

 connecting A. hidhiferum and A. Jiaccidum, as I have i:)lants of what 

 was supposed to be it which actually produce occasional bulbs, and 

 the colour is the same. A. umbrosum varies greatly in type. 

 Besides the form described, and which, by the way, has the lobes 

 distinctly stalked towards the bases of the pinnae, as have also the 

 others, there is a kind only growing about two and a haK feet high 

 with falcate or scythe- shaped lobes, and another about two feet 

 high with much more abundant foliage, and the lobes rounded, but 

 with crenated edges. It occurs at Taranaki. Both these last have 

 the short sori mentioned as characteristic of A. hians, and the 

 fructification never covers the pinnules as it does in the large plant. 

 All throw off runners which produce fresh tufts. 



Asjndium acideatum varies more than many ferns distinctly 

 classed. Var. vestitum develops a caudex, and becomes almost 

 arborescent. There is one old plant a few miles from here, the 

 caudex of which, at about a foot above the ground, parts into three 

 branches, which all rise to the height of nearly six feet, and have 

 dense crowns of fronds two and a half feet long, the whole forming 

 a noble fern. I have several times thought of transplanting it 



