PTEHIS. 175 



entire at the edge, capsules frequently orange-colour, stipes 

 and primary rachis rich chestnut-coloured glossy, secondary 

 and tertiary rachises more or less winged with the decurrent 

 pinnules. (Tab. CXX. B.) — Brown, Prodt\ Nov. Holl.p. 154. 

 Ag. Pterid. j}- 40. Hook. fil. Fl. N. Zeal. ii. p. 25. Pteris 

 affinis, Rich, in Bot. of the Astrolabe, jo. 81. A. Cann. in 

 Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. p. 365. Pt. chrysocarpa, Link, 

 Hort. Berol.p. 33. Pt. tenuis, A. Cumi. I.e. p. 365. 



Hab. New Holland : Port Jackson, Brown, Sleber, etc. ; Victoria, Robertson. 

 Port Stephens, Capt. King (with very narrow, firm, linear segments). Tasmania, 

 R. Gunn, n. 1538, and n. 41 (with the ultimate simple pinnules an inch and more 

 long, firm and creiiato-lobate, capsules very copious and bright-orange). Norfolk 

 Island, Dr. V. Thomson. New Zealand: Auckland, Sinclair; Bay of Islands, 

 Dr. Hooker (some specimens very finely cut) ; Hutt Valley, Dr. Lyall ; Wangaroa, 

 Allan Cunningham. Lord Howe Island, Macgillivray, n. 699, Milne, n. 27. — 

 Dr. Hooker speaks of this as a species of Juan Fernandez and Chili, but that 

 plant is the Pt. Chilensis of authors ; and he further remarks that Pt. tremula 

 so closely resembles Pt. arguta of the south of Europe, etc., that he thinks it 

 possible that all may prove to be one widely-diffused species. Although I am 

 not ])repared to subscribe to the latter opinion, 1 am quite unable to point out in 

 ■words, still less in a diminutive figure, the marks by which this may be distin- 

 guished with certainty from the following {Pt. Chilensis). Indeed each of these 

 two species (if they be such) are so variable in themselves, that they present forms 

 quite distinct from what may be considered their normal states. Mr. Cunning- 

 ham describes it under two different names in his ' Prodromus of the New Zea- 

 land Flora,' and in neither did he recognize the Pt. tremula of Mr. Brown, 

 which he must have been familiar with as an Australian species. The most 

 uniform marks of our present plant (^Pt. tremula), as distinguishing it from 

 Pt. Chilensis, may perhaps be found in the larger size, more elongated outline 

 or circumscription of the frond, more compound, with the segments broader 

 and longer in some cases, in others longer and narrower ; when a pinnule is pin- 

 natifid, the segments are generally more numerous, the involucre is more conti- 

 nuous, less thin and membranous, of an olive-green colour, entire at the margin ; 

 the capsules are very copious, and generally of a golden colour. Still, most of 

 these are but relative characters, or, as in tlie case of the involucres, too minute 

 to be surely depended upon. Pt. arguta is always a much larger and stouter 

 plant, with broader segments and short sori, never reaching to the apex, and 

 rarely more than half the length of the segment. Pt. Chilensis, like it, is some- 

 times sporuliferous at the base of the lol)es. In our figures of the two species (at 

 Tab. CXX. A. and B.) we have endeavoured to represent such a portion of each 

 as shall best explain our meaning. Some of the specimens with more rigid fronds 

 approach the Jquilina-group. 



32. Pt. (Eupteris) Chilensis, Desv. ; l|-3 feet high, caudex 

 short thick and repent, frond deltoid membranaceous tender 

 3-4-pinnate, ultimate pinnse or pinnules about I an inch to 

 an inch long ovato-lanceolate sessile more or less decurrent at 

 the base, terminal ones confluent all undivided or pirniatifid 

 below with 2-5 oblong rather obtuse lobes, sterile ones 

 broader, fertile ones sometimes linear serrated at the apex, 

 veins lax, veinlets forked, involucres subintramarginal con- 



