896 Transactions.— Botany. 
crowded appearance, caused by the overlapping of the pinne and segments. 
In small specimens the rachis and stipes are often winged nearly to the 
base; in the circinate state the fronds are densely clothed with ferruginous 
hairs; fronds are occasionally found with the lowest pinne undeveloped, as 
in H. multifidum. In its most luxuriant state H. villosum is quadripinnate, 
and in habit resembles the European Trichomanes radicans, Swartz, when 
growing in moist situations. 
The affinities of our plant ‘are with H. polyanthos, Swartz, and H. 
demissum, Swartz; from the former it differs in possessing longer and 
narrower segments and terminal orbicular sori; it may readily be dis- 
tinguished from the latter by its small size and orbicular involucres, which 
have entire lips and are broader than the segments. In colour, texture, 
and the presence of hairs, it approaches H. scabrum, A. Rich., and in the 
position of the sori and their relative breadth as compared with the seg- 
ments, it resembles H. javanicum, Spreng. From all the species here named, 
except H. scabrum, it is distinguished by its villous character. 
Mr. Colenso describes the involucres as “ovate, * * pedicelled."' 
I find these characters only in small and imperfectly fruited specimens; the 
apparent pedicels are simply contracted segments. 
Arr. LVITI.—O» Lindsaya viridis, Colenso. By T. Kizx, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Otago Institute, 17th January, 1878.] 
Tms elegant fern was originally discovered at Mangarewa, in 1842, by 
Mr. Colenso, and described by him as Lindsea viridis three years later, but 
owing to its having been referred to_L. trichomanoides by Sir W. J. Hooker, 
in 1846, it is only after the lapse of thirty years that its specific validity 
has become recognized in Europe, although it is separated from its nearest 
allies by strongly marked differential characters. Without doubt this long 
neglect is in part owing to the rarity of the plant itself, for, although 
oceurring in both islands, it is remarkably local, and for the most part its 
habitats are far apart. The few New Zealand botanists who have collected 
it are unanimous in their opinion as to its specific validity. 
In the first edition of ** Synopsis Filicum,” published in 1868, Mr. Baker 
separated our plant from L. trichomanoides and united it with the Australian 
L. microphylla, Swartz, but two years ago was led to reconsider the question 
through Wanganui specimens transmitted to Kew by Mr. H. C. Field, under 
the idea that it was still considered a form of L. trichomanoides. Mr. Baker 
&loptel the view held by botanists in the colony and published our plant as 
