Colenso. — Descriptions of new Indigenous Plants. 255 



Class III. Ceyptogamia. 



Order I. PILICES. 



Genus 5. Hymenophylhim, Smith. 



1. Hymenophyllum melanocheilos, sp. nov. 



Plant very small, creeping, glabrous, very thin, light green, cellules 

 large ; rhizome filiform. Fronds rather distant on rhizome, upright, 

 simple and bifid, elliptic, linear and spathulate, obtuse, J— f inch 

 high, about 1 line wide, margins often thickened, black and shining ; 

 laciniate-serrate, serratures distant, sometimes dark and rigid, and shining 

 like margins ; midrib thick, glossy, dark like stipe, no lateral veins ; stipe 

 short, 1-2 lines long, not winged, glabrous, dark brown. Involucre single 

 at tip of frond, elliptic, free, less than 1 line long, flattish, slightly convex ; 

 valves free to base, margins entire, black bordered ; borders shining ; recep- 

 tacle included ; sori few, large. 



Hab. Woods, Whangaroa, County of Mongonui ; 1884 : Mr. B. W. 

 Rowson. 



Obs. A very peculiar little species, and one of the smallest known of 

 the genus. Its affinity is with H. marginatum, Hook, and Grev., of Port 

 Jackson, Australia (a scarce and little-known fern), from which species, 

 however, it is very distinct. It has also some affinity with H. parvifolium, 

 Baker, an East-Indian fern of about the same size, but is, also, quite dis- 

 tinct. 



2. H. lophocarpum, sp. nov. 



A climbing fern, mostly pendulous from upper parts of trees. Ehizome 

 creeping, long, branched, hairy. Fronds rather distant on rhizome, glab- 

 rous, spreading, flat and slightly waved, transparent, light green when 

 young darker in age, elastic and curled up when dry, rhombic- or ovate- 

 acuminate, apical portion often narrow-elongate, usually dimidiate at base, 

 2|— 4 inches long, twice the length of stipe, 3-pinnatifid ; pinnae alternate, 

 sometimes very close and sub-imbricate, the lowest pinna solitary and very 

 short ; rhachises, main and secondary, dark, flexuose, finely tuberculate 

 and striate, winged ; wing wide and mostly waved ; secondary segments, 

 sub-flabellate, not branched on the lower or outer side ; veins dark ; ulti- 

 mate segments or lobes rather long, linear, obtuse, apices rounded, nerves 

 green not extending to margin ; margins entire ; cellules large, of vari- 

 ous shapes and sizes, mostly sub-orbicular and oblong. Stipe stout, 

 1-li inch long, blacldsh, shining, striate, roughish, narrowly winged 

 to base, and (with rhachis) slightly hairy ( very hairy when young) ; hairs 

 scattered, long, brownish, tortuous, jointed and transparent. Involucres 

 free, large, sub-orbicular, loose, rumpled or bladdery, wider than lobes, 

 tingid, much larger than sori, confined to upper portion of frond 



