FERNS. 133 
different structure of the stem. A fourth arborescent Fern, known 
to attain a height of fully half a hundred feet, the Cyathea medul- 
laris, occurs in the Cape-Otway Ranges. This latter with our 
two ordinary treeferns stretches to Tasmania, Hast Australia and 
New Zealand, and D. antarctica advances furthermore very spar- 
ingly into South Australia, where however Alsophila australis is 
not to be met with. The Alsophila is so similar to Polypodium 
in fruit, that it could be placed into that genus, were it not for 
the elevated receptacle, on which the fruits are seated ; of species 
of Polypodium, several occur in our colony, all confied to moist 
forest-tracts. Polypodium pustulatum (or P. Billardieri) with 
usually jagged fronds, Polypodium grammitidis with small pin- 
natifid fronds, Polypodium australe with undivided fronds and 
the two latter species with elongated (not roundish) fruit masses, 
grow usually on mossy stems and branches of trees. So also 
grows on Ferntrees in East Gippsland Polypodium serpens, a 
small species with thick fronds. Polypodium punctatum (or P. 
rugosulum) is a terrestrial tall species with much divided and 
usually somewhat hairy fronds. To this the Hypolepis tennifolia 
is very closely cognate.—Cheilanthes tenuifolia is the most widely 
distributed of all our Ferns, and the only one extending into the 
desert ; it is a dwarf species with much dissected fronds ; the 
genus derives its name from the liplike lobes of the margin of the 
frond, under which the fruit is lodged. Rarer but also occuring 
in arid regions is the Notholeena distans ; it is more hirsute than 
the Cheilanthes, its fronds are less copiously lobed and the involucre 
is almost undeveloped ; hence the generic name. Of the genus 
Davallia we have in Victoria three species ; Davallia dubia, which 
tends towards the genus Dicksonia, and is conspicuous on the 
outskirts or the open parts of forests by its light-green color and 
much compounded large fronds. It proceeds not further west- 
ward. The second species Davallia pyxidata is very rare here ; 
as yet it is only found within the boundaries of our colony in the 
Grampians, and it is singular for the tubular involucre of its 
fruit. The third of our species is Davallia flaccida (also described 
as Dicksonia davallioides), a spacious Fern with extremely tender 
and delicately divided fronds, as yet only gathered here towards 
