identified. Kunze, who first recognized tlie physiological differences, oidy pro- 

 l)osed to form a group or section, under the name of Plai/iof/yria, hut even that 

 would he found inconvenient to retain in a work whose main ohjcct is to assist 

 the tyro in the verification of genera and species ; and natural hahit is often a safer 

 guide than minute microscopic characters. 



* Fronds mostly undivided {^rarely suhjnnnatijid). 



1. L. Patersoniy Spr. ; caudex a short rhizome, fronds 

 tufted a foot or more long sul)coriaceous erect, sterile ones 

 lanceolate shortly and rather suddenly acuminate subsinuate 

 crenato-dentate attenuated below shortly stipitate,/h7i/eones 

 linear-elongate, both of them undivided or rarely pinnatifid 

 above the middle with a few (1-6-7) elongated segments, 

 sori occupying the whole length of the frond, stipes 1-2 

 inches long chaffy only at the base. — Spreiig. Syst. Veget. iv. 

 2J. 62. Kunze in Linmm, v. 2.3. ;j. 261. Schkuhr, Fil. Suppl. 

 p. 69. t. 34. Hook. Fil. Exot. t. 49. Hook. fil. Ft. Tusm. 

 2. p. 141. Stegania Patersoni, Bi'. Prodr. Fl. Nov. HoU. 

 p. 152. Salpichlccna Patersoni, Fee, Gen. Fil. p. 79. 

 Blechnum Patersoni, Met ten. Fil. Hort. Bot. Lips. p. 64. — 

 Var. pinnatifida ; segments .3-8. 



Ilab. Port Dalrymple, Tasmania, Paterson. Victoria, South Australia, frequent 

 on the shady banks of the Broadribb and Cabbage-tree Rivers, and at Sealer's Cove, 

 Ferd. Mueller, 1854-5; and /3, Bunnip, Bunnip River. — One of the rarest of the 

 genus Lomaria ; as far as we at present know, inhabiting only Tasmania (and there, 

 we believe, found only by the late Mr. Paterson), and the Colony of Victoria in 

 N.S. Wales, where it has recently been found by the indefatigable Dr. Mueller. 

 It is remarkable that native specimens are described as having all entire fronds, 

 and so it is with most of our native specimens ; but in cultivation they occasionally 

 become partially divided and pinnatifid towards the apex, as shown in our figures 

 in ' Filices Exotica).' Mettenius refers this plant to Blechnum ; Fee to Salpic/ilcena. 

 On some of my specimens, flattish, orbicular, marginal discs are seen on the 

 upper surface of the sterile fronds, terminating the veins. The fact of the L. 

 Patersoni bearing partially pinnatifid fronds in cultivation, might throw some 

 doubt on the validity of the species, at least iipon the correctness of con- 

 sidering the simple frond as the normal state of the plant. Already I stand cor- 

 rected for having, in the ' Filices Exoticae,' under my description of L. Patersoni 

 (in note), described a Lomaria Cumingiana with simple fronds as a new species. 

 Suites of specimens of L. elongata, a plant of extensive geographical range, have 

 convinced me that it is merely a form or a young state of that variable plant, 

 and as such will be described in this work. There the pinnatifid form is evi- 

 dently the normal or perfect state of the species. The earlier specimens detected 

 by Dr. Mueller were all, both the sterile and fertile fronds, quite entire ; but he 

 has since discovered the ])lant having the sterile fronds, only, pinnatifid, with two 

 or three segments. But in a state of cultivation we find the fronds to vary, the 

 fertile ones with two and three segments, the sterile ones with as many as seven 

 or eight ; yet even in that state it is very different from any species of Lomaria 

 with which we are acquainted. 



** Sterile fronds pinnatifid {inferior segments sometimes free). Fertile ones 

 either pinnatifid or very frequently pinnate. 



2. L. elongata, Bl. ; caudex short subrepent, frond lung- 



