62 A CONTKIBUTION TO, ETC. 



New Zealand varieties with those of this country, for in Australia 

 the forms in question are less liable to run into each other. A. 

 Australe (which used to be called Allantodia from the sausage- 

 like shape of the sori) is a very delicate and membranaceous fern, 

 common in some of the eastern parts of Australia, as well as in 

 Tasmania, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and India. I have seen 

 it at the Fox Ground growing near Alsopliila Australis, and A. 

 Macarthuri, and it occurs on the Blue Mountains. Brown made 

 two species of this fern, but Hooker unites both forms, and Dr. 

 Hooker remarks, " I am disposed to consider all the East Indian 

 Allantoid group known to me, except A. fiinbriatum, identical 

 with A. Australe''' The little A. Trichomanes, or common 

 spleenwort, which occurs not only in Great Britain and through- 

 out Europe, but also in each of the other divisions of the globe, 

 has been found in several parts of Australia. Cunningham re- 

 ported many years ago that he had collected it at Bathurst and 

 Parramatta, but I think, as it has never been seen anywhere near 

 the latter by subsequent observers, that there is some little in- 

 accuracy in the habitat given by Hooker. As Cunningham for- 

 warded from Parramatta many specimens which he had collected 

 in different parts of the colony, it seems probable that the little 

 fern in question was placed by mistake amongst some specimens 

 collected in the immediate neighbourhood of that place. Mrs. 

 Selkirk and Miss Atkinson have recently collected this fern in the 

 neighbourhood of Berrima. A. paleaceum, which derives its 

 specific name from the copious scales on the caudex, is described 

 by Brown as a tropical fern, and M. Thozet has found it near 

 Bockhampton. It bears some resemblance to A. flabellifolium, in 

 the form of the pinnae, and in the proliferous apices of the fronds, 

 but it differs in being much harsher in texture, and in having 

 scales with long fringed margins. Sir "W. Hooker remarks that 

 few, if any, ferns are less known than this, and that he was in- 

 debted to Mr. Macgillivray for specimens of it, collected on 

 Erankland Isles, on the N. E. coast of Australia. A. caudatum 

 was found in N. W. Australia by Dr. E. Mueller, and accord- 

 ing to the opinion of some botanists, it is to be regarded as a 

 variety of A.falcatum. One of the most interesting of the genus 

 is A. bulbiferwm (so called on account of the primary pinnae being 

 frequently proliferous), which in numerous varieties is found in 



