mi ccs.'} 



FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



however an error to conclude that the organs least liable to vary in individual species are therefore the 

 best adapted for the general purposes of classification, however conspicuous they may be. Though I 

 consider habit of growth and the mode of development of the axis to be of higher systematic value in 

 Cryptogamic plants than in Phuenogamic ones, I am convinced that this is the case, not so much from these 

 organs in Perns presenting characters of higher structural or physiological importance than they do in 

 flowering-plants, but from their value being greater in comparison with those afforded by the extremely 

 simple organs of reproduction. 



With regard to the analogies that exist, or have been supposed to exist, between the various organs of 

 Cryptogamic and Phsenogamic plants, I do not think they warrant our employing them for purposes of 

 classification. I do not recognize any analogy between the two types upon which the rhizomes of Perns 

 are developed, and exogenous and endogenous wood; nor, were such an analogy to be established, or even 

 were we warranted in considering Exogens and Desmobrya* or Endogens and Ercmobrya, identical in mode 

 of development, would it follow that the rhizome of Perns was of the same importance in a systematic point 

 of view as are the stems of flowering-plants ; for organs that afford characters of the highest importance in 

 one Class or Natural Order, are valueless for the same purpose in another. 



The following synopsis aims at little beyond a systematic arrangement of the New Zealand Perns, ac- 

 companied with such characters as shall enable the student to name his plant and determine its affinities 

 and distribution. In constructing it, I have often been obliged to adopt merely artificial characters, and in 

 a few instances to separate widely closely-allied plants. It would have been easy to have arranged the 

 species in a strictly natural series, but very difficult, if not impossible, to have so defined the genera when 

 thus arranged, that a student could avail himself of the arrangement. Under these circumstances, I have 

 thought it better not to sacrifice utility to considerations of a highly scientific nature only, which could 

 only be understood after a complete knowledge of the species is obtained, and which cannot then be appre- 

 ciated by a study of the New Zealand Perns alone. To obviate this defect, I have always given the true 

 affinities of the misplaced species in the notes under itself, and under its nearest ally in the genus to which 

 it should naturally belong. 



Amongst the more important points to be attended to are the following. The tribes, though for the 

 most part natural, are not of equal value; thus Opldoglossea and Marattiacem are structurally more dif- 

 ferent from one another and from the rest of Perns than Polypodies and CyatJiem are. The division of 



* These are the terms employed by Mr. John Smith (of the Royal Gardens, Kevv) for distinguishing the two 

 terms of rhizome that prevail throughout Ferns : of these the Eremobrya throw off the fronds from different parts of 

 an elongated rhizome, with which their stipites are jointed ; in the Demobrya, on the contrary, the fronds are clus- 

 tered towards the apex of the rhizome, and their stipites are not jointed at their insertion. The Hymenophylla the 

 lohjsticlm Trichomona, and all the Stegania are Desmob.yous, according to this definition; Analeph, Fliymatodes, 

 etc., are Eremobryous. Such are the definitions of the terms, as now defined to me bv Mr. Smith. According 

 however to an excellent little work on the British Ferns (Moore's Handbook, ed. 2), the term Desmobrya was 

 originally proposed by Mr. Smith for Ferns with fasciculate fronds, and Eremobrya for those with the stipites 

 inserted laterally on the rhizome. Mr. Moore adds, that this suggestion was followed up by Mr. Newman, who 

 proposes the term Eremobrya for Ferns with lateral articulated stipites; Chorismobrya for those with lateral adherent 

 stipites ; Desmobrya for those with continuous tufted stipites ; and Orthobrya for Ferns, such as BotrycMum and 

 Ophoglossum, whose fronds are not circinate in vernation. To me it appears that all these terms express most 

 important characters, available for systematic purposes, and which have been too long overlooked. But I must 

 add, that I do not find that these alone afford satisfactory characters for the construction of tribes or in many 

 cases, of genera even. I am indebted to Mr. Smith's great knowledge of Ferns for vcrv much assistance in this 

 atural Order, and for his ready help in many eases of difficult synonymy, and in assigning limits to the New- 

 Zealand species, about which we have, 1 may say in every case, arrived at the same conclusion. 



