HorLowAY.—Studies in the New Zealand Hymenophyllaceae. 79 
all abundant outside the actual gullies, spreading in sheets on the dam 
forest-floor. Above the forest-line, according to Dr. Allan’s observations, 
restricted. 
(c.) The largest extent of forest now existing in the Waimate neighbour- 
hood is that in the water-supply area of Kelsey’s Valley. This valley extends 
eastwards for a length of about two miles from the foot of Mount Studholme 
(3,650 ft.), in the Hunters Hills. At its lower end, distant four miles from 
Waimate, it lies at an altitude of 550 ft., and at the foot of Mount Stud- 
holme at about 1,400 ft. This forest, therefore, differs from that of Mount 
Peel and Mount Oxford in belonging almost wholly to lowland altitudes. 
As indicated above, its rainfall will be considerably greater than that 
recorded for Waimate itself. 
From the lower end of the valley upwards there is the same general 
epiphytic fern flora on the shrubby trees in the stream-bed as at Peel 
Forest, although the stems of the tree-ferns are for the most part bare. 
The presence in the lower third of the valley of the three species Hymeno- 
phyllum sanguinolentum, H. australe, and H. Tunbridgense, the first named 
as an abundant low epiphyte, and the two others more scantily on the gully- 
walls, marks this locality as belonging to the lowlands. Farther up the 
valley, where also the shrubbery becomes more closed in, and the humidity, 
as evidenced by the wealth of mosses and liverworts, is higher, the upland 
species H. villosum and H. um are predominant, the former being both 
low epiphytic and terrestrial, and the latter restricted entirely to the walls 
of the gully. H. bivalve and Н. multifidum are also here present in thick 
moss on the creek-sides, and H. demissum, though somewhat les$ commonly. 
Although the characteristically lowland and upland members of this list 
are, as already indicated, predominant in the lower and in the higher 
reaches respectively of the main ravine, H. sanguinolentum is scantily pre- 
sent in one or two places as a low epiphyte up to 1,200 ft., and H. peltatum 
extends, but also scantily, well down into the lower reaches. The humidity, 
concerning the behaviour of the species in Westland as a standard for 
comparison. As in Mount Peel, the Hymenophyllaceae in Kelsey’s Valley 
are restricted to the deeper ravines, this being probably the case also in 
the original state of this forest. 
(d.) The forests of Banks Peninsula have now nearly all been destroyed, 
so that it is not possible to describe with certainty the distribution of its 
filmy-fern flora. Laing (25) has carefully studied this area in its present 
