SfO Transactions. — Botany. 



short stipe (podetium), which is generally cylindrical in the lower part and 

 sub-branched in the upper, each branchlet terminating in an apotheciuna. 



Hah. — On sub-vertical clayey banks, in the forest (" Seventy-mile bush"), 

 between Norsewsod and Daneverk, forming large patches, and growing with 

 B. rufus. 



I was much pleased in detecting this pretty little plant, especially in 

 finding it growing together with its allied species B. rufus ; the contrast 

 between them was great, in the thallus as well as in apothecia, and showed 

 advantageously. Hitherto, I believe, this species has only been found in 

 Tasmania. 



Art. XL VIII. — The Ferns of Scinde Island (Napier). 

 By W. CoLENso, F.L.S. 

 [Bead before the Haioke^s Bay Philosophical Institute, 11th October, 1880.] 

 I HAVE often thought that it would not be undesirable to bring to your 

 notice the ferns of Scinde Island ; that is, I regret to say, those which ivere 

 here until lately, for many of them are no longer to be found within its 

 limits. 



And this fact of some of them having already become extinct (like much 

 of the old, striking, and curious indigenous vegetation of the extensive flats 

 and plains adjoining) is another reason, with me, for putting on record 

 those ferns that formerly existed here, which I myself have often seen and, 

 with one solitary exception, gathered. For, in times to come, it might well 

 be doubted whether any ferns — save, of course, the common ubiquitous 

 Pteris esculenta — could have ever inhabited this small high, dry, and isolated 

 islet-like limestone mound, destitute of fresh-water. 



And there is yet another valid reason, viz., that among them were two, 

 if not three, peculiar ferns, which are also local and comparatively rare in 

 New Zealand. 



In the " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora," by Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 31 genera of ferns, containing 120 species (exclusive of varieties), are de- 

 scribed ; some of Jhose however have not yet been detected within the area 

 of New Zealand proper, but only in far-off outlying locahties — as Chatham, 

 Auckland, and Kermadec Islands. Here, within this small area of Scinde 

 Island, containing only 660 acres (and now comprised within the Borough 

 of Napier), there were no less than eleven of those 31 genera, or one-third 

 of the whole ; and of the said 120 species, fourteen, together with, at least, 

 one new species, not known to Dr. Hooker, making a total of fifteen. 



