174 PTERIS. 



laris, though M'e confess we should liave preferred the name given two years later 

 by Gaudichaud of alafa ; the costa is peculiarly stout and prominent, and gene- 

 rally of a rich chestnut colour, as is the very thick triangular stipes, which is 

 chatty with narrow subulate scales at the base. The root or caudex I have not seen. 



30. Pt. (Eupteris) scaberula, A. R\ch. -, a foot and a half 

 to 2 feet and more high, caudex very long creeping here and 

 there rooting thicker than a crow's quill brown glossy l)ut 

 rough and partially paleaceo-hirsute, frond more or less erect 

 ovate or broad-lanceolate rigid coriaceous everywhere resi- 

 noso-glandulose and subpubescent tri- rarely subquadri])in- 

 nate, primary pinnae varying much in length and outline 

 lowest pair of them always very distant from those above 

 them, secondary pinnte lanceolate acuminate, ultimate pin- 

 nules very small a line more or less long serrated and towards 

 the lower part of the secondary pinnoc pinnatifid, veins indis- 

 tinct simple, involucres formed by the revolute membrana- 

 ceous margin which is soon forced back by the spreading of 

 the sori, stipes 4 to 8 or 10 inches long and as well as the 

 flexuose main rachis rich tawny-brown rough with resinous 

 points. (Tab. XCIII. A.)— ^. Rich, in Voy. de VAstroL i. 

 p. 82. /. 11. A. Cunn. Bot. N. Zeal, in Hook. Conip. Bot. 

 Mag. n.p. 365 {et Pt. microphylla, ^;. 3G6). Hook.fil. Fl. N. 

 Zeal. n. p. 25. Allosorus, Presl. 



Hab. New Zealand : Northern and Middle Islands, as far south as Akaroa, fre- 

 quent, Allan Cunningham, D'Urville, Bidvnll, Sinclair, Colenso, J. D. Hooker, 

 Lyall, Raoul. — One of the most elegant of Ferns, and most distinct. Indeed it 

 is difficult to mention any species with which it has a close affinity. In its very 

 creeping root, and coriaceous texture, and somewhat in its ramification, it seems 

 allied to the Jrjuilino-grou^p, but the frond is very much and very minutely di- 

 vided. The stipes and flexuose main rachis are of a rich tawny hue, rough to the 

 touch. I possess specimens varying from a span almost to 3 feet in height. The 

 primary pinnae vary extremely in length, and somewhat in the compactness or 

 closeness of the pinnules ; and the lowermost pair of primary pinnae I almost in- 

 variably find to be wide apart from the pair above. 



31. Pt. (Eupteris) tremula, Br.; frond 2-3 and more feet 

 long ovate or oblong submembranaceous 3-4-pinnate to decom- 

 poundly pinnate, pinnae broad-lanceolate, superior pinnules 

 simple linear or linear-oblong, sterile portions usually ser- 

 rated their bases decurrent and confluent, lower pinnules 

 with a broad base gradually acuminated crenated or again 

 pinnate or pinnatifid with many linear-oblong obtuse seg- 

 ments, narrower and often quite linear in the fertile speci- 

 mens, veins forked, the veinlets divaricating, involucres sub- 

 intramarginal often continuous round all the segments and 

 to the very apex of the pinnule of a greenish-brown colour 



