Filices.] FLORA OF TASMANIA. 131 
2. Gleichenia dicarpa (Br. Prodr. 171); fronde dichotome ramosa, ramis divaricatis pinnatis, 
pinnis pinnatifidis subtus densissime ferrugineo-lanatis squamosisque glabratis glaberrimisve, segmentis orbi- 
culatis saccatis lato margine cinctis, capsulis binis, rachi costáque lanatis paleaceisque rarius glabratis.— 
Hook. Sp. Fil. i. p. 3. t. 1 C; Fil. Exot. t. 40; Kunze, Farnkr. p. 164. t. 70. f. 2. G. Vulcanica, 
Blume, En. Fil. Jav. 251. (Gunn, 1504.) 
Var. B. alpina; minor, densius ferrugineo-lanata et paleacea.—G. alpina, Br. et Hook. l.c.; Hook. 
et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 58. (Gunn, 1504, in part.) 
Has. Abundant, especially in subalpine districts; var. 8 ascending to 4000 feet.—(v. v.) (Cultivated 
in England.) 
DrsrarB. Alps of Victoria, New Zealand, New Caledonia; lofty mountains of Java and Celebes, and 
Malacca. 
This is a rather common Tasmanian plant, and varies extremely in the amount of woolly clothing it bears. 
Sometimes the whole plant, from the rhizome upwards, is covered with a soft brown wool and chaff (such is espe- 
cially the case with alpine specimens); at other times the plant is nearly glabrous throughout, and the under sur- 
face of the lobes is glaucous. Tasmanian specimens attain nearly as large a size as G. semivestita ; New Zealand 
ones are smaller, and more slender. The pinn® are more slender than in @. semivestita, and the saccate lobes, 
which look like closed boxes with transverse slits, at once distinguish this specifically. I have in vain attempted 
to distinguish G. alpina as a species; it is certainly only an alpine, and consequently stunted, and often woolly 
state of G. dicarpa: 1 have not only gathered these varieties passing into one another, but Mr. Gunn's magni- 
ficent suites of specimens show every transition state. Some of my specimens of var. ß alpina, from Mount Wel- 
lington, are as glabrous as any of G. dicarpa. 
$ 2. MERTENSIA.— Sorus at the middle or fork of a veinlet. Segments of the pinne linear. 
3. Gleichenia flabellata (Br. Prodr. 161); fronde submembranacea dichotome ramosa prolifera 
flabelliformi bipinnata, pinnulis ascendentibus linearibus acutis serrulatis utrinque concoloribus subtus gla- 
berrimis pubescentibusve, capsulis 4-6 exsertis, costa rachi stipiteque nudis glaberrimis v. rarius pubes- 
centibus.—Hook. Sp. Fil. i. p. 6; Fil. Exot. t. 71. (Gunn, 23.) 
Var. B. tenera; submembranacea, pinnulis linearibus integerrimis. —G. tenera, Br. Prodr. 161. 
(Gunn, 1506.) 
Has. Damp shaded places, but not very common : Yorktown, Gunn.—(v.v.) Var. 8. Calder’s Pass, 
on the road from Lake St. Clair to Macguarrie Harbour. 
Distris. New South Wales and Victoria, New Zealand, New Caledonia. (Cultivated in England.) 
A much larger plant than any of the former, 2—4 feet high, with larger, broader, more membranous and pro- 
liferous fronds, having several tiers of branches rising above one another.— Pinnules narrow, long, serrate, green on 
both sides. Stipes, costa, and rachis without bullate scales.—The G. tenera, Br., appears to me to bc only a more 
membranous state. 
Tribe II. CYATHEE.—Sorus globose. Capsules with an incomplete vertical ring, sessile or stalked, placed 
on an elevated receptacle, often mixed with jointed hairs. 
Gen. II. ALSOPHILA, Br. 
Sori dorsales, globosi. — Receptaculum prominulum. JZnvoluerum 0. Vene pinnate, libere, simplices 
y. furcatee.—Caudex sepius arborescens. 
A very large genus of tropical Tree-Ferns, of which more than fifty species are enumerated, but few of them 
grow in the south temperate zone ; of these one is an Australian plant, found also on the north coast of Tasmania ; 
