Plate 236.— TRICHOMANES LYALLIl and TRICHOMANES 



COLENSOI. 



Family FILICES.] [Genus TRICHOMANES, Linn. 



Trichomanes Lyallii, Hook, nrui Bak. Syn. Fd. 77 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 943. 

 Hymenophyllum Lyallii, Hook. /. Fl. Nov. Zd. ii, 16. 



Trichomanes Colensoi, Hook. j. Ic. Plant, t. 979 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 945. 



The first of the two species figured on this plate is a delicately beautiful little 

 plant, and is worthily named after its discoverer. Dr. Lyall, who did so much in 

 the botanical exploration of the southern coasts of New Zealand. It was first 

 collected in Thomson's Sound, on the south-west coast of Otago, but has since been 

 found in dense moist forests in many localities between the Northern Wairoa and 

 Whangarei southwards to Stewart Island. In many of the deep ravines of the Thames, 

 Waitakarei, Hunua, and other hilly districts in the Auckland Province it covers 

 the trunks of tree-ferns with sheets of pendulous diaphanous fronds, of a glistening 

 pale-green colour. On the east coast of the South Island it is either rare or 

 altogether absent ; but it is plentiful on the western side of the island from 

 Collingwood southward. 



Trichomanes Lyallii was originally described as a Hymenophyllum, and it is really 

 solely a matter of personal idiosyncrasy as to whether it should be referred to that 

 genus or to Trichomanes, the structure of the involucre being quite intermediate. 



Trichomanes Colensoi, as its name indicates, was one of the many discoveries 

 of Mr. Colenso, and was first gathered by him in January, 1842, in the dense forests 

 surrounding Lake Waikare-moana. In 1860, or thereabouts, it was found by 

 Mr. W. T. L. Travers in densely wooded ravines at Collingwood, Nelson ; and shortly 

 afterwards by Sir Julius von Haast at Lake Wanaka. In 1885 it was discovered by 

 Mr. J. Stewart in deep gorges near Mamaku, on the Rotorua Railway, the most 

 northern locality yet recorded. It has since been noted in several other widely 

 separated stations, but always in small quantity, and invariably in deep wooded 

 ravines or gorges. On the whole, it must be regarded as a rare and local species. 

 It is usually found pendulous from rocks or trees by the side of streams, or on wet 

 rocks by waterfalls, and often grows mtermixed with mosses or Hepaticw. 



Plate 236a. Trichomanes Lyallii, drawn from specimens collected by Mr. W. T. Brame at Kumara, 

 Westland. Fig. 1, fertile pinnule ( x 4) ; 2, tip of segment, with one face of the indusium removed, 

 showing the sporangia ( x 6) ; 3, the same with the sporangia removed { x 6) ; 4, a single sporangium 

 (enlarged). 



Plate 236b. Trichomanes Colensoi, drawn from specimens collected by Mr. J. Stewart in wooded 

 ravines near Mamaku, Rotorua Railway. Fig. 5, segment of a pinnule, with an indusium at its base 

 (x 6) ; 6, section of indusium (x 9) ; 7, two sporangia (enlarged). 



