414 Transactions. — Botany. 



Art. XXXIV. — A Description of some New Indigenous Neio 

 Zealand Forest Ferns. 



By W. CoLENSo, F.E.S., F.L.S. (Lond.) 



^'s Bay Philosophical 

 1896.] 



Gleichenia, Smith. 



Read before the Haivke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 12th October, 



1896.] 



1. G. ciliata, sp. nov. 



Plant erect (rhizome not seen). Stipe 5in.-7in. long, 

 slender, Y&in. wide, subterete and obsoletely angled, some- 

 what concave above, dry, woody, light-brown, smooth. Frond 

 largely flabellate, 8in.-9in. broad, 4in.-6in. long, forked and 

 dichotomous ; main branches spreading, each main branch 

 bearing 2-3 branchlets (in all, 5-7 simple ones in each), sub- 

 coriaceous, dark red-brown above ; branchlets linear-acumin- 

 a;te, 5in. long, 6-8 lines broad, pinnate (or pinnato-pinnatifid 

 cut quite down to rachis), tips very acuminate, narrow, acute. 

 Segments linear, deltoid, 4 lines long; sub 1 line broad at 

 base, opposite and subopposite, acute, margins entu-e, revolute 

 throughout, glabrous above, glaucous and floccose below ; 

 hairs fine, long, entangled, white ; veins distinct, pinnate, 

 forked ; costa stout, prominent, pale-brown, with large ovate 

 scales on rachis, adpressed, horizontal and lateral, covering 

 segments at base. Scales flat, finely reticulated, red-brown 

 with white margins and much ciliated. Sori biserial, close, 

 on the middle of outer veinlet, 20-25 on a segment ; capsules 

 2-3 together, yellow, flattened on top. 



Hab. On east side of Mount Euapehu, Taupo district ; 

 1895 : Mr. E. W. Andrews. 



Obs. I. This species differs pretty much from G. cun- 

 ninghamii, Hew., in several characters, as well as in size. 

 A fine and correct drawing of G. cunninghamii (made, too, 

 by Fitch), with dissections, is given by Sir W. J. Hooker 

 in his " Sp. Filicum," vol. i., tab. vi., b, that represents the 

 type species discovered by Cunningham in 1838, in the great 

 interior forest leading from Waimate to Kaitaia, of which, 

 from him at the time, I received a specimen, named by him 

 G. arachnoidea. In the accompanying description by Hooker 

 he says, " Stipes clothed with large deciduous scales " (well 

 shown in figure), "fronds of a thick coriaceous texture, the 

 apex of the branches not running out into a tail-like point, but 

 pinnatifid to the extremity, segments linear," and (as there 

 shown) "margins not revolute." Sir W. J. Hooker at that 

 time had only received specimens from the extreme north 



