Kink.—On New Zealand Forms of Cheilanthes, 247 
Amr. XLIT.—On the New Zealand Forms of Cheilanthes, 
By T. Kırg, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th August, 1873. ] 
WHILE recently waiting at Lyttelton for the departure of the steamer, in 
company with Mr. S. C. Farr, I took the opportunity of examining the rocks 
in the immediate vicinity, when we had the good fortune to find a tuft or two 
of the typical form of Cheilanthes tenuifolia, Swartz, a plant new to me, and 
offering a marked contrast to C. sieberi, Kunze, which is so abundant amongst 
the scoria in the neighbourhood of Auckland, and in other localities in the 
North Island. I ascertained that the same plant had been collected by 
Mr. Potts on another part of Banks Peninsula, and Mr. Farr informed me 
that he had seen it in other places; but I am not aware of its having been 
noticed in the colony by other observers since its first discovery by Dr. Lyall, 
possibly on the spot where it was seen by us, and where it grows associated 
with the handsome Senecio saxifragoides. 
The only positive statements I can find of the occurrence of our plant in 
New Zealand are under the description of the species in “Species Filicum" 
(Vol. IL, p. 82), where it is recorded by Sir William Hooker as having been 
found on Banks Peninsula by Dr. Гуа]; and in “ Synopsis Filicum," where 
itis simply stated to be a native of New Zealand. In the * Flora of New 
Zealand” Dr. Hooker uses the name О. “ tenuifolia,” Swartz, but remarks, 
“the figure of C. sieberi in ‘Species Filicum’ resembles the New Zealand 
plant ;" although from his describing the frond as “rarely deltoid," he doubtless 
had Dr. Lyall's specimens before him. In the Handbook, after describing, at 
p. 362, the ordinary New Zealand plant as C. tenuifolia, var. sieberi, Dr. Hooker 
remarks, at page 748, * This is usually kept as a distinct species— C. sieberi, 
Kunze.” It is probably from this cause, coupled with its rarity in the 
colony, that New Zealand botanists have so completely lost sight of our plant, 
that no mention of it was made in the Catalogue of Ferns issued by the 
Geological Survey Department two or three yearsago. I may add that I have 
no knowledge of any specimens in local herbaria, except those to which 
reference is now made. 
C. tenuifolia, Swartz, and C. sieberi, Kunze, are considered distinct by 
Mr. Baker in “Synopsis Filicum," but are certainly of close affinity. Still 
the difference in the appearance of the two forms, together with the remarkable . 
localization of the first-named, render it desirable that the attention of New 
Zealand botanists should be drawn to the re-discovery of our plant. 
At first sight C. tenuifolia is easily recognized by its deltoid fronds and 
long ascending pinnules ; C. sieberi by its narrow, almost lanceolate fronds, and 
