994 FILICES. [Aspleniwm. 
states not clearly separable, one of which is the A. triste of Raoul, and another 
Colenso’s A. gracillimum. Var. tripinnatum has still narrower pinnules, deeply 
cut into narrow-linear segments, and the sori are quite marginal. It approaches 
very close to some states of A. flaccidwm, but the frond is broader and more 
decompound, and the texture is thinner. In addition to the above varieties 
there are a large number of puzzling forms, which apparently connect the 
species with A. falcatwm, A. lucidum var. Lyallii, A. lucidum var. scleroprium, 
A. Hookerianum, A. Richardi, and d. flaccidum. In Stewart Island, passage 
forms into A. scleroprium and A. flaccidwm are particularly abundant, and it is 
often difficult to decide to which species they should be referred. It would 
occupy many pages to characterize these, and I doubt whether it is possible to 
define them in language sufficiently precise to enable them to be recognised with 
certainty. 
A. bulbiferum in some of its forms is also found in Australia and Tasmania, 
many of the Pacific islands, Malaya, North India, South Africa, Mexico, and 
Central America. 
9. A. Richardi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 35.—Rhizome short, 
stout, usually forming a rounded knot-like caudex, clothed at the 
top with dark-brown subulate scales. Stipes tufted at the top of 
the rhizome, 2-6in. long, stout, rigid, erect, greenish, usually 
clothed with linear scales, rarely almost glabrous. Fronds 3-9 in. 
long without the stipes, 1-41in. broad, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 
acuminate, dark-green, varying from almost membranous to 
coriaceous, somewhat rigid, 2-3-pinnate; rhachis smooth or bristly. 
Primary pinne 8-12 pairs, rather close, stipitate, $-2 in. long, ovate- 
lanceolate to ovate; secondary crowded, often overlapping, ovate- 
rhomboid, pinnatifid or again pinnate. Ultimate segments 44-4 in. 
long, narrow-linear, obtuse or acute or mucronate, each with a 
single vein. Sori short, broad, oblong, on the margins of the seg- 
ments.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 373; Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 197, exel. var. 
Colensoi; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 222; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 76; 
Field, N.Z. Ferns, 124, t. 28, f.5. <A. adiantoides var. Richardi, 
Hook. f. Ic. Plant. t. 977. A. Raouli var. Richardi, Metten. Aspl. 
118. A. symmetricum, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 264. 
Nortu Isuanp: Tararua Range, Buchanan, H. C. Field. SourH Isuanp: 
Not uncommon in hilly and mountainous districts throughout. Sea-level to 
4000 ft. 
A very puzzling plant. Small states with membranous fronds appear to 
pass directly into A. Hookerianwm var. Colensor, while larger and more coria- 
ceous forms only differ from erect states of A. flaccidwm in the more finely cut 
fronds and smaller segments. 
10. A. flaccidum, Horst. Prodr. n. 426.—Rhizome short, stout, 
erect, clothed at the top with copious dark-brown subulate-lanceo- 
late scales. Stipites tufted at the top of the rhizome, usually 
rather short, compressed or angled, greenish, scaly at the base, 
naked above. Fronds very variable in size and shape, 3in. to 3 ft. 
long or more, 2—9 in. broad, the long-fronded varieties lanceolate or 
oblong-lanceolate, the shorter ones ovate or broadly ovate, acumi- 
nate, thick and coriaceous, flaccid and pendulous or rigid and 
