14 



FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



[Filices. 



Rather a rare New Zealand Fern, but a very common Tasmanian one ; also found in the Malay Islands, Ceylon, 

 and the Indian mountains.— Fronds 2-8 inches high, erect, lurid green. Frond erect, bi-tripinnatifid. Segments 

 linear, T \ inch broad, flat, undulated or crisped. Involucres often very numerous, terminal, ovate, turgid, broader 

 than the segments of the frond, deeply divided into two valves, whose lips are quite entire or erose. Stipes and 

 rachis with a broad, flat, or crisped wing. Rhizome quite glabrous, creeping.— I can detect no difference whatever 

 between Cunningham's H.flexuosmn and this species. 



10. Hymenophyllum polyanthos, Sw. ; erectum v. decurvum, fronde lato-ovata v. lineari-oblonga tri- 

 pinnatifida ssepras rufo-fusca, ramis primariis (pinnis) erecto-patulis decurvisve anguste lineanbus plams 

 undulatisve, segmentis brevibus, involucris plurimis axillaribus terminalibusque liberis ovatis orbiculatisve 

 segmentis plerumque latioribus profunde bivalvibus, valvis obtusis integerrimis erosisve rachi late alata, 

 stipite superne alata basi nuda glaberrima v. sparsa pilosa.— Sw. Syn. ¥11. p. 149. Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 1. 

 p. 106. 



Var. /3. sanguinolentum, Hook. 1. c. ; involucris axillaribus v. segmentis brevibus terminalibus orbicu- 

 latis. H. sanguinolentum, Swartz, Syn. Fil. ScUuhr, Fil. t. 135 C. A. Rich. Flor. A. Cunn. Prodr. 

 H. villosum, Col. in Tasm. Phil. Journ. 



Hab. Var. /3. Throughout the Islands, abundant. 



The H. sanguinolentum of Swartz has been the object of repeated study by Sir W. Hooker and myself, and always 

 with the result that it is one of the many varieties of the protean II. polyantkos, a plant found in all tropical coun- 

 tries, and everywhere most abundantly. Specimens are preserved in the Hookerian Herbarium from sixty localities 

 and collectors, and these do not represent a hundredth part of the number of specimens I have examined. Even 

 as a variety, II. sanguinolentum is not constantly distinguishable, its darker red-brown colour, flexuose main and par- 

 tial rachis, and short segments, being its best diagnostic marks. Curved specimens often resemble II. demissum, 

 which is a larger plant, always truly pinnate, with the rachis not winged below. Its habit, less winged stipes, 

 flexuose rachis and often costa, and colour, best distinguish it from states of H. crispatum.— Fronds 3-6 inches 

 high, rather rigid and opaque, of a dark reddish-brown colour, with thick midrib, bi-tripinnatifid ; primary branches 

 spreading, rarely decurved; secondary branches short, out into few, short, linear segments. Involucres generally 

 very numerous, orbicular, free, broader than the segments, split to the base ; valves usually quite entire, convex. 

 Rachis flexuose and winged. Stipes winged above, sometimes having a few scattered hairs at the base and on the 

 rhizome, but more often quite glabrous. — The whole plant has often a peculiar odour, which it retains for some 

 time after being dried. Raoul (in Plant. Nov. Zel.) quotes II. Slephensordi as a synonym of this, but I do not 

 know where that name has been published. 



b. Frond pinnate below. Rachis not winged below. 



11. Hymenophyllum demissum, Sw. ; elatum, erectum v. decurvum, fronde ovato-acuminata pinnata, 

 pinnis ascend entib us bi-tripinnatindis ssepius caudatis segmentis linearibus, involucris segmentis lateralibus 

 terminalibusque sessilibus parvis ovatis ad basin bivalvibus, rachi superne alata inferne stipiteque nuda 



o-laberrima. Sw. Syn. Fil. Schhuhr, Fil. I. 135 C. A. Rich. Flor. A. Cunn. Prodr. Rook Sp. Fil. v. 1. 



p. 109. Trichomanes, Forst. Prodr. 



Hab. Abundant throughout the Islands, Banks and Solander, etc. 



A very beautiful species, found as far south as Lord Auckland's Group, and as far north as the Philippine 

 Islands. Rhizome wiry, creeping, glabrous. Stipes slender, stiff, quite glabrous.— Frond 4-9 inches long, 1-5 

 broad, deltoid or ovate-lanceolate, pinnate below, pinnatifid above. Pinna: spreading, ascending, membranous, 

 bi-tripinnatifid ; the segments narrow, -jV inch broad, the ultimate ones often elongated, the lateral bearing small, 

 terminal, convex, ovate involucres, which are blunt and split to the base into two valves, which are rather broader 

 than the segments.— The pinnated frond distinguishes this from II. polyanlhos, the smooth stipes from //. scabrum. 



