ASPLEMUM, § EUASPLEXIUM. 99 



minated satiny reticulated scales, stipites semiterete or much 

 compressed and broad a span to afoot and more long, fronds 

 often 2 feet long and a foot broad pinnated with a terminal 

 pinna, pinnae all petiolate 5-7 to 15 or more subcoriaccous 

 sometimes fleshy patent elliptico-ovate or oblong-lanceolate 

 acuminate generally finely so and subcaudate more or less 

 (often strongly) serrated, superior base rounded inferior base 

 obliquely incised, the margin thickened, veins conspicuous, 

 sori numerous linear elongated in close parallel oblique lines 

 with narrow white involucres of a firm texture. (Young 

 jilants more or less scaly.) — Forst. Prodr. p. 80. Schk. Fil. 

 p. GG. t. 72. Hook. Fl. N. Zeal. ii. p. 33. FL Tasm. ii. p. 

 146. — Var. /3. paucifolium, dwarf, pinnse 3-7, terminal one 

 much elongated. — Var. 7. Lyallii ; inferior pinnae pinnated 

 at the base, intermediate ones lobed and deeply so, espe- 

 cially at the superior base. Hook. fil. Fl. N. Zeal. p. 33. 

 /. 77. A. Lyalli, Moore, Ind. Fil. p. 143. 



Hab. New Zealand, abuiKlant, Forsfer, and all succeeding botanists. The 

 piniKC even in the move normal state vary extremely in form and in size : many 

 of them are 6 inches long and 2 inches and more broad, others are equally long 

 and narrow-lanceolate. One specimen has on the lowest pinnaj the upper base ex- 

 tended into an auricle an inch long ; another specimen has two acuminated auricles 

 nearly 2 inches long; generally those with the narrower pinna; are the more thick 

 and fleshy. Norfolk Island, Dr. Vaughan Thomson. Pacific Islands, Owhyhee, 

 Menzies. Sunday or Kaoul Island, Kermadee group, Milne and M'GilUvray (our 

 specimen with pinnae very large and quite obtuse). — Var. /8. N. Zealand, Colenso ; 

 this has a very peculiar appearance, is of a singularly dry and coriaceous texture, 

 0-8 inches high, yet fully fructified, with the terminal pinna; much elongated, 

 and the copious sori generally resembling those of A. lucidum, but in most of the 

 specimens the lateral pinnae are quite short. — Var. 7, Otago, Middle Island, 

 N. Zealand, Dr. Lyall, has the lower pinnae again pinnate and sometimes the 

 upper ones also, so as to be thus bipinnate throughout: in the same way as we 

 have described A. obtusatum to do, when it constitutes the A. difforme of 

 Brown. 



Mr. Moore, in his ' Index Filicum,' diflFers from us in his views of this Fern and 

 the allied kinds, A. obtusatum and A. obliquum, all considered distinct species by 

 their first discoverer, Forster ; and these three are well represented, as to their 

 normal state, by Schkuhr and Labillardiere. Moore unites A. obliquum with 

 A. lucidum, and he may be right ; but I think the former has much more affinity 

 witli A. obtusatum {veruni) than with the latter : and if they could be carefully 

 studied in their native localities, the probability is we should find it needful to 

 unite the whole group. The copious scales of the caudex are formed of the most 

 delicate membrane, reticulated as in the leaves of Sjihagnum : but instead of 

 being white like them, they are glossy and even iridescent. The caudex is singu- 

 larly thick woody for so small a Fern, and as large in the case of our dwarf var. ^ 

 as in our finest and largest specimens. 



40. A. (Euasplenium) gemmiferum, Schrad. ; caudex sub- 

 repent or declined stout densely clothed with long woolly 



