THE VICTOKIAN NATURALIST. TS 



NOTE ON A NEW VICTORIAN FERE, ADIANTUM 



DIAPHANUM, 



BY Baron F. von Mueller. 



(Read at Field Naturalists'' Club of Victoria, Sept. loth, 1886.) 



Mr. French exhibited specimens of an Adiantum, determined as A. 

 diaphanum of Bluuie bj Baron vou Mueller, and discovered near the 

 Leng Leng, a tributary of tlie Latrobe-River in ranges about 10 

 miles south-ATCst of Drouin by Mr. French. This fern is new for 

 Victoria, and the localitj*, in which it was found, is the most 

 southern known f;>r this species. 



Since the 7th vol. of the "Flora Australiensis" was published eight 

 years ago, this fern has been found at the following additional 

 places, Mt. Dromedary (Miss Bate), Milton (Bauerlen), Connors 

 River (Scortechiiii), Norfolk Islniid (Robinson), Bloomfield River 

 (Miss Bauer), Mossman's River (Barnard), Trinity-Bay (Sayer.) 



Fronds occur witli single and with as many as 9 pinnas, in the 

 latter case two diminutive, the pinnules not rarely bear a few dark 

 bristly liairs. A. diaphanum may easily be mistaken for A. affine 

 but the pinnae are fewer and more crowded, the pinnules of tli inner 

 texture and still more finely veined, wliile usually the whole plant is 

 smaller. In all probability A. affine will also still be found in 

 Gippsland, but it might be easily taken for a form of A. formosum^ 

 known through Baron von Mueller since 1854 from the forests on 

 tlie lower Snowy liiver. 



The shape and position of the iudusia^ offer tlie best marks ot 

 discrimination between the two, almost enclosed and orbicular- 

 renate in A. afine exserted and ellipsoid-renate in A. formosum. 

 The latter species is the taller of the two, and its pinna3 are also 

 more numerous. 



Mr, French, F.L.S., exhibited on behalf of Barrai von Mueller 

 a specimen of a new Papuan Helicia, pointing out that it was 

 belonging to that genus, by which the Proteacex were solely repres- 

 ented in India, China, Japan and tlie Phillipiue Islands, its 

 extension also to Australia having first been demonstrated by tlie 

 Baron. 



It would be of great interest to watch in what direction the order 

 of Proteacece was developed in New Guinea, from whence hitherto a 

 litorial Banksia, and an equally maritime Grevillea of Australia 

 bad been obtained, besides this Helicia and an endemic Grevillea 

 belonging to the mountain regions. The latter however indicated 

 already that we might look for other forms of Proteaceoe in the 

 Papuan Ranges, than merely Helicia, more particularly so as in 

 Continental Australia, Tasmania. New Zealand and South America, 

 some Proteacece were alpine. i 



