CoLENSO. — On some new and undescribed New Zealand Ferns. 379 



pairs of involute segments, tlie lowermost pair being deeply and falcately 

 cut nearly to the base, each of these forked segments being also deeply 

 serrated on both sides, and having also a costa are very much recurved 

 all the segments have sharply-serrated margins and apices, each having 6-8 

 teeth on its side and three at the apex, with the midrib extending through 

 to the margin and terminating in the central tooth, while the involucrae 

 possesses very short, sharp, rigid teeth. The whole appearance, at first 

 sight, strongly reminding one of a small spiny holly leaf (Ilex aquifolimn). 

 Hymenophyllum scabrum var. nov. hietum. 



Rhizome long, creeping, stout, densely clothed with red shaggy fine hair; 

 stipe stout, 3-3|- inch long, thickly hirsute, also the main rhachis, with light- 

 coloured (scarcely reddish) flexuose hairs 2-3 lines, long, flattened, and 

 finely and regularly jointed, 20-22 joints to 1 liae ; frond deltoid-ovate 5-6 

 in. long, 5-5^ in. broad near base, curved, pinnate below, elastic, and pos- 

 sessing a very similar strong odour to that of H. sanguinolentum ; every secon- 

 dary rhachis, costa vein, and veinlet thickly covered below with red adpressed 

 hairs ; jnnncB bi-pinnatified, sub-opposite, falcate, thickly set on rhachis, 

 overlapping; segments broader, larger, and more profuse than mH. scabrum, 

 with their apices entire ; secondary rhachises, costa, and veins prominent ; 

 involucres broadly deltoid, finely and closely toothed, free to base, inflated, 

 open, of a lighter coloured green than the frond. Yoimg fronds and stipes, 

 before unrolhng, densely shaggy, with long light brown hahs. 



The whole appearance of this fern is widely different from H. scabrum 

 (vera), it is not only shorter — having a dwarfed form, and is much more 

 shaggy, but it is more dense in its vernation, and much less rigid. Its 

 colour, too, is a hghter green. 



Hah. — On the ground in the " black birch " (Fagus solandri) forests, 

 east spurs of the Euahine range, where it grows pretty uniformly in thick 

 beds, but is not often found bearing fi-uit. 



I have long known this fern (indeed, Sir W. J. Hooker had some inferior 

 first specimens of it, which I had sent him, when he compiled Vol. I. of his 

 Species Filicum in 1846), and I have again of late — during the summers of 

 1879-1880 — enjoyed myself among it in its native forests, and have dih- 

 gently compared its living specimens with those of the larger and coarser 

 variety, H. scabrum. And having also lately been studying H. scabrum 

 (vera) of A. Eichard (on seeing a plate of it with dissections in his " Botany 

 Voyage de L'Astrolabe," already mentioned under H. pygmceum (supra), and 

 comparing therewith the modern descriptions of H. scabrum, as given by 

 our more emiaent Enghsh pteridologists. Sir W. J. Hooker, Sir Jos. 

 Hooker, Mr. Baker, and Mr. J. Smith, in their various works on ferns), I 

 have noticed how greatly this plant varies, not merely from the original 



