850 Transactions. — Botany. 



S. rubricaulis, sp. nov. 



Plant terrestrial, gregarious, dioecious, each plant simple, subcrect, 

 stipitate, the largest from f— 1 inch long including stipe, roots short succu- 

 lent and hairy ; stipe mostly 3-4 lines long (sometimes 9-10), flexuose, 

 obsoletely angled, rosy-red, 1 -nerved from base of frond to root (sometimes 

 2-nerved above), succulent, semi-transparent ; frond (largest and fruit- 

 bearing) broadly deltoid or fan-shaped in outline, -J inch long, ^ inch broad 

 at top, mostly 4-parted or sub-digitate, sometimes simply once-forked, 1|— 2 

 lines broad, and very truncate and undulate at base, not decurrent on stipe; 

 segments under 1 line broad, nearly linear but broadest at base and narrowest 

 at tips, margins serrate, serratures few, small, and irregular, none at tips 

 which are obtuse and retuse, glabrous, transparent, minutely reticulated, 

 areolae oblong-pentangular regular ; colour bright light green ; fructification 

 on upper surface of frond, single, on one side below forking of veins of 

 forked fronds ; involucre a narrow linear-ofclong laciniate scale ; peduncle 

 10-11 lines long, slender;' calyptra tubular, 2^-3 lines long, whitish, red- 

 dish at base, slighly roughish, mouth truncate, laciniate, with rather long 

 fimbriae ; fimbria brown ; capsule 1-1^ lines long, linear, cylindric, finely 

 striate, sub-acute and pointed, shining, black ; antheridia on separate and 

 much smaller fronds, closely placed on midrib and veins on the upper 

 surface. 



Hab. On shadefl. clayey banks, Seventy-mile Bush, near Norsewood, 

 County of Waipawa, 1880-3 : W.C. Glenross, near Napier, 1883 : Mr. D. 

 P. Balfour ; fruiting in September. 



Obs. — A species having affinity with S. bifiora, mihi, and S. hymenophyl- 

 lum, Hook., but very distinct from both. S. bifiora bears its fructification 

 on the lower surface and this species on the upper. This species grows 

 thickly together in little beds or patches, with its fronds always inclining 

 one way, half-nodding and overlapping, with its coloured fructification erect 

 and some distance above them. Some fronds have three segments, others 

 only two, and some a single one, which is then oblong-lanceolate. It is a 

 very pretty neat little species. 

 2. S. pellucida, sp. nov. 



Plant gregarious stipitate erect, usually single, though sometimes two, or 

 even three, are found united by a very short rhizome, 1-1^- inches high, 1^- 

 2-| lines broad, commonly once-forked, sometimes single, and occasionally 

 (though rarely) 3-branched, single fronds and segments generally linear- 

 oblong and broader near tips, pagina of frond broadly decurrent to near 

 base, slightly sinuate and waved, particularly below, transparent, margins 

 very finely serrate, apices rounded, obtuse or slightly emarginate, nerve 

 single, strong, and extending to tips, colour very light green ; stipes very 



