72 DOODIA. 



long including the short black subsquamosc scabrous stipes 

 fascicled erect lanceolate acuminate attenuate at the base rigid 

 asperous with spicules dccjily almost to the rachis pinnatifid, 

 segments numerous nearly horizontal subfalcate H to 2^ 

 inches long lanceolate lowest ones abbreviated more or less 

 free subtriangular with a broad adnate base, all spinuloso- 

 denticulate, sori small in one or two rows distant from the 

 costa, involucres very small evanescent. — Brown, Proclr. p. 

 151. Spreng. Neue Entd. \. p. 234. t.^.f. 1. Hook. Exot. 

 Flora, t. 8. [small cultivated jilant). All. Cunn. Bot. N. Zeal. 

 Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. p. 3G4. Woodwardia aspera, il/c ^- 

 ten. Fil. Hort. Lips. p. 65. 



Mab. New Holland; Port Jackson, Brown, Allan Cunningham, Bynoe, Sinclair, 

 Clowes, etc. Brisbane River, and head of the Burnett River, N. Australia, F. 

 Mueller; one specimen I5 foot high, growing with plants of the ordinary size. 

 Port Essington, ^rms^ron^r; New Zealand ?, D'Urville, Allanand Ii. Cunningham, 

 Brackenridge. — It is not a little remarkable that our herbarium, though eminently 

 rich in New Zealand plants (including Dr. Hooker's collections formed there), 

 does not possess a single sjiccimen of Doodia aspprn from that country ; and I am 

 hence led to believe that all writers on the Botany of New Zealand have mistaken 

 a state of If. media for it. Dr. Hooker indeed lias himself been disposed to unite 

 this species with D. caudafa, in his ' Flora NovK-Zelandise.' It is liowever quite 

 a distinct species, of a peculiarly firm, straight, and rigid character, with fronds 

 singularly contracted at the base, so that the greater portion of the stipes is lobato- 

 alate rather than pinnatifid, and if two or three of the lower lobes are free from 

 union with the adjacent ones, they are broadly adnate, not in the least contracted 

 at their base. 



We will not venture, from the brief character given by Desvaux (Mem. Soc. 

 Linn, de Paris, vi. p. 285) of his Doodia blechnoides, to say what it is : but if a 

 Doodia, there is no doubt an error in giving it as a native of " S. America." 



2. D. blecJinoidcs, A. Cunn. ; " fronds pinnatifid, segments 

 linear-ensiform much attenuated mucronato-serrulate dilated 

 at the base, lowest ones abbreviated lanceolate or semi-orbi- 

 cular distinct, stipes nearly terete scabrous at the base." — All. 

 Cunn. note in Bot. of N. Zeal, in Hook. Comp. to Bot. Mag. ii. 

 /J. 365 [not Desv.) . Woodwardia blechnoides, Mett. [not Desv.) 

 "rhizome repent oblique shortly stipitatc, stipes with scat- 

 tered black paleaceous scales, fronds conform 1-H foot long 

 membranaceous rigid scaberulous glabrous broad-lanceolate 

 from the middle towards the base and towards the ape.K 

 gradually decreasing pinnatisect, segments multijugate con- 

 tiguous and confluent with a narrow wing, lowest ones sub- 

 remote abbreviated transverse or oblong, superior (or mid- 

 dle) ones 2 inches long 4 lines wide equallj' dilated at the 

 base elongato-oblong gradually attenuated and acuminated 

 the margin subundulatcd serrated with callose subspinulose 



