458 Transactions. — Botany. 



pair of piunre ; pinna) twice pinnatifid, unequally rhomboid, the lowest 

 pair divided nearly to the mid-rib ; the basal pinnules spreading; capsules, 

 terminal, small, half immersed, divided nearly to the base, hairy when 

 young, margins entire or erose. 



Hah : North Island — near the source of the Orua, Kuahine Mountains ; 

 2,000 to 3,000 feet, H. Field, junr.! South Island— Okarito, A. Hamiltoyi. 



The affinities of this fern are with H. (Erugiaosum, Carm. [H. subtUissi- 

 mum, Kunze), and with H. flahellatum, Swartz. From the former it differs 

 in the deltoid frond, in the form of the pinnte, in the long and slender 

 stipes, as well as in the delicate texture and partial hairiness. It resembles 

 the latter in the shape of the pinnules, but differs in the stipes being longer 

 than the frond, which is never ovate or linear, and the pinnules are never 

 crowded. In habit our plant differs widely from both ; in texture and 

 colour it resembles Trichomancs hjallii. 



The stipes, rachis, costa, veins and involucres are usually hairy, at 

 least when young ; but hairs are rarely produced from the surface of the 

 frond ; in H. ceruginosum they are developed from both surfaces, and from 

 the margins of the frond as well as from the veins ; they are usually 

 straight, and never deciduous as in our plant, my oldest specimens of 

 which have very few hairs. The valves of the capsule are minutely erose 

 in my young specimens from the Kuahine mountains, but this character is 

 not developed in the mature specimens from Okarito. 



This species was originally discovered by Mr. Field iu the Euahino 

 mountains, and I was indebted to Mr. H. C. Field of Wanganui for a single 

 young frond as far back as the early part of 1877, but it was not until tho 

 receipt of a supply of specimens from Mr. Hamilton, that I was able to 

 satisfy myself of its specific validity. 



DESCEIPTION OF PLATE XIX., Fig. A. 

 llijmenophyllmn rttfescens, nat. size. 



1, 1. Pinna with capsule from old frond, enlarged. 



2, 2. Fiuna and capsule from young frond, enlarged. 



Art. LXXV. — Xotcs and Suggestions on the Vtilization nf certain neglected Xeiti 

 Zealand Timbers. By T. Kirk, F.L.S. 

 [Bead before the Wellington rhllosophical Society, 0th November, 1878.] 

 Theee is probably no other British colony in which the vegetable products 

 are wasted to so great an extent as in New Zealand. I do not now refer to 

 tho wanton destruction which, in the North Island especially, accompanies 



