982 FILICES. [Lomaria. 
and one form can be traced directly into the other. I have kept up the four 
varieties established by Sir J. D. Hooker in the Flora, although the first three 
do not seem to be separated by any well-defined characters. Var. minor is more 
distinct ; and in some respects approaches L. vulcanica. It has a different habit 
and mode of growth, and may prove to be a separate species. 
In nearly all the species of Lomaria the fertile fronds are sometimes 
irrecularly mixed with sterile pinnz, but in none is this so commonly seen as in 
L. capensis. Sometimes one side of the frond may be fertile and the opposite 
side sterile, or the sterile and fertile pinne may be irregularly mixed. Or 
sometimes the upper half of the frond may be fertile and the lower sterile, or 
vice versa. It is also quite common for the pinne themselves to be partly 
fertile and partly sterile. The frond is also occasionally once or twice di- 
chotomously forked, constituting Mr. Potts’s LZ. duwplicata, and sometimes the 
tips of the fronds are regularly crested. 
10. L. filiformis, A. Cunn. Precur. nu. 183.—Rhizome long, 
stout, branched, climbing up trees to a great height, clothed with 
squarrose scales. Sterile fronds very numerous, scattered along 
the rhizome, pinnate throughout, of two forms; those on the 
ground or on the lower part of the rhizome small, 3-6 in. long, 
4-1 in. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate ; pinnze +4in. long, oblong 
to orbicular-oblong, sharply and deeply toothed. Fronds from the 
upper part of the rhizome much larger, 1—24 ft. long, 3-6 in. broad, 
lanceolate, pendulous, hardly coriaceous, dark-green, glabrous or 
more or less scaly along the rhachis and cost; stipes short, scaly 
at the base. Pinne numerous, 14-4in. long, about din. broad, 
lanceolate, faleate, narrowed upwards into a finely acuminate point, 
shortly stipitate and truncate or rounded or cordate at the base, 
margins regularly and finely crenate-dentate. Fertile fronds from 
near the top of the rhizome, ovate or ovate-oblong in outline ; 
pinne numerous, 3-6in. long, 4in. broad, very narrow-linear or 
almost filiform. Indusium very narrow.—faoul, Choix, 37; Hook. 
Sp. Fil. iii. 33, t. 149; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 366; Hook. and 
Bak. Syn. Fil. 180; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 68; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 109, 
t. 10, f. 8, 8a, 38. L. propinqua, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 184. L. pimpi- 
nellifolia, Hook. f. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. (1844) 412. 
Stenochlena heteromorpha, J. Sm. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iv. 
(1845) 149; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 46; Brack. Fil. U.S. Hapl. 
Exped. 77. Osmunda reptans, Banks and Sol. ex Hook. f. Hl. Nov. 
Zel. ii. 46. Blechnum reptans, Christ. 
Nort anp SoutrH Isuanps: In forests from the North Cape southwards 
to Nelson and Marlborough, abundant. Sea-level to 2000 ft. 
Also recorded from the Fiji Islands. A most distinct species, remarkable 
for its very long climbing rhizome and dimorphic sterile fronds. 
11. L. nigra, Col. m Tasmaman Journ, Nat. Sci. (1845) 16.— 
Rhizome short, stout, suberect, clothed with the bases of the old 
stipites mixed with chatfy scales. Stipes slender, densely scaly, 
1-3 in. long. Sterile fronds tufted at the top of the rhizome, 
spreading, 3-8 in. long, 1-14 in. broad, linear-oblong, membranous, 
