386 Transactions. — Botany. 



Stipa setacea, E. Br. 



Stipa j)etriei of Buchanan's " Manual of the Indigenous Grasses of New 

 Zealand," p. 171, t. xvii., 2, must be referred to this species, which, although 

 local, has a wide distribution in Australia. None of the specimens kindly 

 sent me by Mr. Petrie have the outer glumes so unequal as represented in 

 Mr. Buchanan's drawing. 



It is not improbable that this species is merely naturalized in Otago, 

 and has no claim to be included amongst our indigenous plants. 

 Davallia dubia, E, Br. 



In " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," vol. xii., p. 346, this 

 species is recorded as a native of the Canterbury Provincial District by Mr. 

 J. B. Armstrong, but eiToneously : specimens of Hypolejns millefolium, with 

 the pinnules less divided than usual, having been mistaken for it. 

 Asplenium mohrioides, Bory. 



Polystichum mohrioides, Presl. 



I have had the pleasure of examining specimens of this southern fern, 

 collected on the Auckland Islands by a sailor during the past year. As 

 they differ slightly from Fuegian specimens, I append a full description. 



Fronds tufted, 8 to 5 inches in length, scarcely more than an inch in 

 width ; stipes very short, covered with soft brown scales mixed with hairs ; 

 frond oblong or oblong-lanceolate, pinnate, pinnse in about twelve pairs, 

 close set and imbricating, the lower shortly stalked, ovate, pinnate or 

 pinnatifid, segments close set, crenate, obtuse ; sori crowded, restricted to 

 the upper part of the frond, indusium smooth, attached by the centre. 



The young fronds are very cha.ffy, but the scales speedily disappear from 

 the upper portion. The scales vary greatly in size, and are minutely ciliate. 



Specimens from Magellan Straits are much more robust than our plant, 

 and frequently attain 1\ feet in length, of which the stipes constitutes nearly 

 a third. The texture is coriaceous, and the segments larger and less obtuse 

 than in the Auckland Island plants. 



In the chaffy habit and membraneous texture our specimens approach 

 A. cystostegia, but the lax pinnte and acute segments of the latter afford 

 easy marks of distinction. 



The distribution of this species is very remarkable. It has been col- 

 lected in Chili, Magellan Straits, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, 

 Marion Island, and California. 



