898 Transactions.— Botany. 
specimens I have seen were growing on vertical dripping rocks at the Huia 
Creek ; some of the fronds are fully sixteen inches long, but not quite so 
wide as shorter fronds of more lax habit grown on a horizontal surface at 
Port Fitzroy. In some places where it has the advantage of a continuous 
supply of moisture, it is exposed to the glare of the sun for a portion of the 
day, but with little appreciable effect on its delicate texture. _ 
In an immature state this species may easily be mistaken for a Davallia 
from its narrow sori, which are never wider than twice their depth, and do 
not extend to the lateral margins of the segments. Mr. Baker points out 
that “ the anterior valve is a continuation of the lamina, while the posterior 
valve is membranous, both alike incised.” 
The affinities of Lindsaya viridis are with L. trichomaneides, Dryand., 
and L. microphylla, Swartz. The former differs from our plant in its 
creeping, chaffy rhizomes, broadly ovate coriaceous fronds, spreading, usually 
opposite pinne, and fan-shaped segments with branched veins; it is confined 
to forests, and extends from the North Cape to Dusky Bay. L. microphylla 
is confined to temperate Australia, and is distinguished from L. viridis by 
its larger size, more distant pinne, and the sori forming a continuous 
marginal line, the width being more than twice the depth. L. viridis is 
endemic in New Zealand. ZL. trichomanoides is found also in Tasmania, 
New South Wales, and Fiji, 
Art. LIX.—On Nephrodium decompositum, Br., and N. glabellum, 
A. Cunn. By T. Kmzx, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 1st December, 1877.] 
In the ** Hand-book of the New Zealand Flora" these plants are considered 
identical; in the ** Flora Nove-Zelandiew,’’ the second is described as a variety 
of the first. They are, however, so easily recognized at sight that a singular 
unanimity of opinion prevails amongst New Zealand botanists in favour of 
their being considered specifically distinct. I purpose, therefore, briefly to 
examine the differential characteristies of the two plants. 
In N. decompositum the rhizome is elongated, slender, more or less clothed 
with chaffy scales and the distant bases of old fronds; it is frequently 
branched and extensively creeping so that the plant often forms patches 
several yards in diameter. Fronds erect, solitary, distant, never tufted or 
