82 Transactions. 
To pass from the vertical to the regional distribution of the species 
east of the dividing range: Practically the only early source of information 
dealing with the forests in their less altered state is Armstrong; paper 
quoted above. In it he gives a list of Hymenophyllaceae which were to + 
be found in the Canterbury Province, and he particularizes in à tabular 
form where each species occurred— whether on Banks Peninsula, or in the 
** Middle District," or in subalpine localities—and also whether they were 
rare, local, or abundant. It is evident from this list and from my 
own observations detailed above that, speaking generally, the species of 
Trichomanes, and also the specially hygrophilous species of Hymenophyllum, 
both lowland and upland, are either absent or are very locally distributed. 
H. villosum and Н. multifidum, which in Westland have the widest alti- 
tudinal range, are, together with H. peltatum, the most abundantly 
distributed species east of the dividing range. 
There are now no forests on the Canterbury Plains which can be 
described as altogether lowland and properly to be compared with the 
lowland forests of Westland. Owing to its dry southern-beech type, as well 
as to its altitude, the Mount Oxford forest now apparently contains only 
two lowland species, of which H. sanguinolentum is in every sense extremely 
restricted and H. Tunbridgense almost extinct. These two species are 
found here only at the'lowest altitude. The rain forests of Mount Peel, 
Waimate, and Banks Peninsula, whose lowest altitudes are 1,000 ft., 550 ft., 
and sea-level respectively, show a corresponding increase in the number 
and comparative abundance of lowland species. 
H. villosum does not in Westland descend to sea-level, and it preserves 
in Canterbury this character in its distribution. Judging from his list, 
Armstrong recognized H. villosum only in its more stunted subalpine form. 
In his original paper describing this species T. Kirk (22, p. 395) notes that 
collectors had commonly mistaken it for H. ciliatum, a species which has never 
been found in New Zealand since it was first reported from a single locality 
in the Nelson district some years before Armstrong wrote his paper. lt is 
to be noticed that the latter includes H. ciliatum in his list, stating that 
related H. sanguinolentum, and that he accordingly concluded that this 
latter species was widely distributed from the lowlands to subalpine 
altitudes. Again, he ascribes the same wide distribution to H. Tunbridgense, 
` and I suggest that he has confused this species with Н. peltatum. 
I have found the former to be a lowland and quite a local plant in 
Canterbury. 
With regard to other usually widely-ranging species, it is noteworthy 
that H. demissum, which in Westland is abundant from sea-level to high 
up into the mountain forest, is very much less frequent in Canterbury. 
H. bivalve also, which occurs with H. demissum on the mountain-flanks of 
north Westland, and especially, as will be seen later, in the southern-beech 
forests around Nelson, is in Canterbury an infrequent species. er 
widely-ranging species in Westland are the diminutive H. Armstrongit 
and also H. rarum and H. flabellatum. The former has been found in 
Canterbury only on wet mossy rocks and boulders in subalpine localities 
on the dividing range, as mentioned above. In the Westland lowlands 
it is extremely abundant in short moss on smooth sapling-like stems, but 
in the Canterbury forests such a station is not consistently damp enough. 
H. rarum and H. flabellatum are thoroughgoing epiphytes which can only 
