CoLENSo. — On new Plants. 865 



several years, but only last year, for the first time, found it bearing fruit in 

 great profusion. 



I have honoured myself by naming it after a disciple and fellow- 

 countryman of Linnseus — Dr. Sparrman — who was one of the earliest 

 botanists in New Zealand, accompanying Captain Cook and the two Forsters 

 hither on his second voyage of discovery. Of Sparrman, his fellow- 

 voyager Dr. Forster says in his preface to his classical Genera Plantar um : — 

 " Sparmannus plantas describebat, Fihus easdem delineabat. — Verum dum 

 Sparmannus plantas accuratius examinaret, filius et ego saepe in consilium 

 vocati in commune consulebamus, etc.," — and yet nothing in New Zealand 



has ever been named after him ! t 



I 

 Hymenophyllum pusillum,, Av .Cy p- 



Plant both epiphytical and terrestrial; rhizome red, wiry, creeping, hairy; 



hairs red. 



Frond 4-8 lines long, oblong-ovate, obtuse, pinnate, 4-5 jugate, bearing 

 long, red, broad, curved scales on its veins on both surfaces ; i^mw^ petiolate 

 free, mostly opposite, lobed or sub-pinnatifid on the upper side only, lower- 

 most pair always opposite and generally 3-lobed ; rhachis not winged, save 

 a very little at top, lobes very small and confluent at apex ; sti2Je 3-7 lines 

 long, capillary, flexuose ; stipe and rhachis bearing scattered red chaffy 

 scales ; segments or lobes, obovate-elliptic, not linear, very obtuse or trmi- 

 cate, semi-transparent, largely serrate or laciniate, the teeth or laciiiiatious 

 very long for size of plant and wholly composed of the fine texture of the 

 frond and often revolute never spinulose, generally five teeth at the apex of 

 a lobe ; involucres terminal and supra-axillary on the uppermost pinnae, 

 obovate, divided about halfway down, not compressed, and bearing red 

 hauy scales ; lips toothed ; receptacle included ; sori red. 



Hah. — On trunks of hving trees, and on the earth at their bases, in 

 dense shady forests throughout the North Island, but sparingly. First 

 detected (barren) on Te Eauga mountain, head-waters of Waikare, Bay of 

 Islands, 1836 ; again (but barren) at the head of the Wairarapa Valley, 

 1852 ; and again, and in fruit, in the forests, west slopes of Euahine moun- 

 tain range, near the head- waters of the Eiver Manawatu, 1878-9-80 ; gener- 

 ally found on Olea sp. 



This little plant is nearly allied to Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, H. revo- 

 lutum (mihi), I H. minimum, and other of the smaller HymenophijllcB ; but 

 on close comparison with them (living specimens) it will be found to be 

 abundantly distinct. To me it appears as a necessary needful species re- 



t Vide " Transactions N.Z. Inst., Vol. I., "Essay on the Botany of the North Island, 

 N.Z.," pp. 55, 56, for more. 



I Tasmanian Journal Natural Science, Vol. I., p. 186. 



