Cotensv.— Description of new Plants. 839 
time it has been a puzzler, as it was not originally found bearing fruit, and 
its richly crisped very membraneous form was so widely different from all 
our New Zealand ferns; yet, from its regular and simple venation, etc., I 
supposed it to be closely allied to P. pennigerum. This is now proved, from 
the plants in cultivation having produced fruitful fronds bearing similar 
sori, whence this description is in part made; but another great and striking 
difference is the not-meeting of the lower pair of veins (as in that species), 
the lobes being separated much beyond them; and this character (if con- 
stant) would cause the removal of this fern from Goniopteris. There are also 
other and great differences between these two ferns; still, I cannot bring 
myself to consider them as really specific—time, however, will show. I 
have very great pleasure in naming this pretty plant after its zealous dis- 
coverer, 
Polypodium ( Goniopteris ) pennigerum, Forst., var. giganteum, W.C. 
Whole plant, pretty nearly as P. pennigerwm, is described in ‘‘ Handbook _ 
Flora of N.Z.” (and in other botanical works), but with these differences :— 
Fronds, 5-6 feet long, 14-16 inches wide, broad-oblong lanceolate ; stipes 
very stout, woody, semi-circular, deeply channelled on upper surface, and 
marked on both upper outer edges with a continuous white ridge, scaly 
below ; scales searious, large, 2-3 lines long, ovate, rich dark-brown, 
elegantly reticulated ; rhachis and midribs of pinnules, hairy (hirsute) above; 
pinnules 7-8 inches long, 14 inch broad, broadest at base, sub-petiolate, 
acute, alternate, distant, patent, largely and regularly conniving towards 
apex but not faleate ; lobes 7-8 lines long, 2-2} lines broad, linear-oblong, 
slightly falcate, rather distant, toothed, margin recurved, and slightly and 
sparsely hairy at tips and edges; sinus between the lobes acute; each lobe 
with 9-10 pairs of veins, lowest two pairs of veins opposite, those above 
sub-opposite, and all bearing a single sorus, the lowermost two veins 
meeting the opposite two above them, and so generally throughout the 
pinnule; the lowermost pair of lobes on each pinhule are the longest, 
the lowermost lobe is auricled, the auricle bearing 1-2 sori extra: on 
small veinlets. 
Hab.—Skirts of woods and thickets, head of River Manawatu ; 1875- 
881. ; 
This fern seems to be a large var. of P. pennigerwm, possessing however 
Several characters differing from that plant, which are noted above. P. 
pennigerum, the common form, is also plentiful in the same localities. I 
have long known this plant, but should not care to bring it forward, were it 
a. more —_— (or species) — Hiamation 3 
: ) 
