Aspidium. | FILICES. 999 
3. A. Richardi, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 23, t. 222.—Rhizome short, 
thick, densely clothed with linear-subulate dark-brown or blackish 
scales. Stipes 6-18 in. long, stout, erect, more or less clothed with 
rigid black subulate deciduous scales mixed with woolly hairs. 
Fronds few, tufted at the top of the rhizome, 9-18 in. long or more 
without the stipes, 8-9in. broad, ovate-deltoid to lanceolate-deltoid, 
acuminate, not narrowed at the base, rigid and coriaceous, glabrous 
above, more or less woolly or furfuraceous beneath, pinnate or 
2-pinnate; rhachis often scaly and woolly like the stipes, but usually 
less conspicuously so. Pinnz numerous, usually close and com- 
pact, but sometimes a little remote, spreading, 4-4 in. long, 3-11 in. 
broad, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid or again 
pinnate. Pinnules numerous, close, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate 
or ovate-oblong, acute or mucronate or pungent, usually more or 
less acutely serrate, but sometimes the teeth are obtuse or very 
obscure. Sori in two rows in each pinnule, about half-way be- 
tween the midrib and the margin. Indusium orbicular, flat, with a 
rather large dark disc and pale margin.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 375; 
Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 253; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 79; Field, N.Z. 
Ferns, 128, t. 13, f. 4. A. coriaceum var. acutidentatum, A. Rich. 
Fl. Nowv. Zel. 71. Polystichum aristatum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 
11. 37, t. 78 (not of Presl.). Polystichum Richardi, Diels. 
NortH anp Souru Isutanps: From the North Cape to the south of Otago, 
not uncommon in lowland districts, especially near the sea. 
Also in Fiji. A variable plant, especially in the extent to which the 
pinne are divided, and in the shape and toothing of the pinnules. 
4. A. oculatum, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 24, t.228.— Rhizome absent. 
Fronds 10-20 in. long, coriaceous, ovate-oblong, acuminate, 3-pin- 
nate, pale and clothed with woolly hairs below ; stipes stout, straw- 
coloured, covered with rigid, large, subulate, brown scales margined 
with white; rhachis with fewer softer scales and lax woolly hairs ; 
primary divisions of the frond 2-4 in. long, narrow ovate-lanceolate, 
acuminate, stalked, not close together; secondary also lax, 2-1 in. 
long, sessile or stalked ; pinnules alternate, sessile, decurrent, + in. 
long, obtuse or mucronate, obtusely toothed or subpinnatifid. Sori 
abundant over the whole under-surface, 2-4 on each segment ; 
involucre orbicular, shortly stalked, with a large black disc and 
narrow reddish margin.” —Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. F'l.376; Hook. and 
Bak. Syn. Ful. 253 ; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 79; Field, N.Z., Ferns, 129. 
NortH anp SourH Isyanps: ‘‘ Wairarapa Valley, Colenso; Akaroa, 
Raoul” (Handbook). 
I have not identified this with certainty, and have consequently reproducad 
the description given in the Handbook. It is probably nothing more than a 
trivial variety of A. Richardi with a rather laxer frond than usual, and smaller 
and shorter pinnules with more obtuse teeth. Mr. Baker keeps it as a distinct 
species in the ‘‘ Synopsis Filicum,”’ but in the ‘‘ Annals of Botany ” (Vol. v., 314) 
he remarks that it is evidently a mere variety of 4. Richardi. 
