Lomaria.} FILICES. 981 
often dwarfed to a few inches, while on the sides of deep wooded 
ravines they are occasionally 8-10 it. long or even more; sterile 
ovate or oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, erect or pendulous, very 
coriaceous to almost membranous, bright-green to brownish-green, 
pinnate throughout; rhachis stout, more or less scaly, especially 
when young. Pinnz often very numerous, but in small specimens 
and in var. minor frequently reduced to 4-6 pairs, alternate, hori- 
zontally spreading, 3-12in. long or more, 4—-lin. broad, acute or 
acuminate, oblique at the base and cuneate or truncate or rounded- 
cordate or even auriculate, sessile by the midrib alone or the upper- 
most more or less adnate; margins minutely toothed; coste more 
or less scaly. Veins free, close, parallel, usually forked at the 
base. Fertile pinne very narrow-linear, distant, 3-9 in. long, 
4-4 in. broad, usually on separate fronds, but often mixed with 
sterile pinne or the pinne partly fertile and partly sterile. 
Indusium broad, membranous, lacerate—F. Muell. Veg. Chath. Is. 
72; Benth. N.Z. Austral. vu. 737. L. procera, Spreng. Syst. Veg. 
iv. 65; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 182; Raoul, Choix, 37; Hook. Ic. Plant. 
t. 427, 428; Sp. Fil. iii. 22; Garden Ferns, t. 53; Hook. f. Fl. 
Antarct.i.110; Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 27; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 366; Hook. 
and Bak. Syn. Fil. 179; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 67; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 
107, t. 2, f.1, 1a. L. latifolia, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. 
(1845) 15. L. duplicata, Potts in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 491. 
Stegania procera, f. Br. Prodr. 153; A. Rich. Fil. 86, t. 18. 
Osmunda capensis, Linn. Mant. 306. O. procera, Forst. Prodr. 
n. 414. Blechnum capense, Schlecht. Adumb. Ful. 34, t. 18. 
Var. a, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 27.—Usually tall and robust. Sterile 
pinne truncate or broadly cuneate at the base. 
Var. b, Hook. f. l.c.—Usually tall and robust. Sterile pinnz cordate or 
auriculate at the base, 
Var. c, Hook. f. l.c.—Usually tall and robust. Sterile pinne narrowed at 
the base. 
Var. d, minor, Hook. f. 1.c.—Smaller, 1-3ft. high, dark olive-green; 
fertile fronds usually exceeding the sterile. Sterile pinne few, 4-8 pairs, short, 
broad, linear-oblong, the lowermost hardly shorter than the one above it, 
upper often adnate.—Stegania minor, R. Br. Prodr. 153. 
Kermapsec Isuanps, NortH AND SourH Istanps, CHaTHAmM ISLANDs, 
STEWART IsLAND, AUCKLAND AND CAMPBELL ISLANDS, ANTIPODES ISLAND: 
Abundant throughout, ascending to 4000 ft. 
A very widely distributed species. From Australia and Tasmania it extends 
northwards to Malaya, and is common in many of the Pacific islands. In 
America it ranges from the south of Chili northwards to Mexico and the West 
Indies. Itis also found inSouth Africa. In New Zealand it occurs in all soils 
and situations, and, although attaining its greatest luxuriance in deep forest 
ravines, is plentiful in open swamps and gullies, and even not averse to bare 
hillsides or the clefts of rocky peaks. At first it is difficult to believe that the 
small forms found in exposed places, often not more than 6in. high, with 3-4 
pairs of pinnz, can belong to the same species as the huge specimens growing 
on moist cliffs in shaded ravines, in which the fronds are sometimes 8-10 ft. 
long, with more than 40 pairs of pinne. But every gradation of size exists, 
