248 Transactions. — Botany. 



short pinnules. I have drawn up the following diagnosis of each, which 

 differs slightly from those of " Synopsis Filicum." 



Cheilanthes tenuifolia, iSwartz. 

 Rhizome covered with silky scales. Stipes tufted, erect, i"-&" long, wiry, 

 polished, purjjle black, slightly fibrillose at base. Frond Q)"-d>" long, 3'-4''' 

 broad, deltoid tripinnatifid, glabrous, not coriaceous. Pinnae 6 to 12, 

 ascending at an acute angle with the main rachis in nearly opposite pairs, or 

 alternate. Pinnules deltoid or oblong, contracted, cut down to the rachis in 

 deltoid or oblong, entire or irregularly-lobed, or crenate, or rounded segments. 

 Rachis narrowly winged above, polished, smooth, glabrous on both surfaces. 

 Sori often continuous, covering the back of the pinnule, and projecting beyond 

 its margin. Involucre crenate or toothed. 



Cheilanthes sieberi, Kunze. 

 Stipes densely tufted, 2^-6''^ long, erect and crowded, wiry, polished, brown. 

 Frond S'^-S" long, ^'-i^ hroad, narrow-oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, tripin- 

 natifid. Pinnse in 3 to 15 opposite pairs, lower pairs distant, broadly deltoid, 

 ^'—V long. Pinnules pinnate at base, not coriaceous. Segments entire, or lobed, 

 or crenate, often contracted. Sori scattered, rarely continuous, and never 

 projecting beyond the margin of the pinnule. Involucre small, roundish, not 

 apparently toothed. 



Art. XLIII. — On the Spread of Cassinia leptophylla. 

 By W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1873.] 

 Most persons who have been in the habit of passing over the hills on the 

 eastern side of Wellington Harbour, or of visiting the Miramar Peninsula, 

 occupied by Mr. Coutts Crawford as a sheep farm, will have noticed the 

 increase, during the last few years, of an indigenous shrub commonly known 

 by its native name as the Taiwhenu, or sea mat-cord, but known to botanists as 

 Cassinia leptophylla. They will, probably, also have observed how much this 

 shrub is already interfering with the use of the land referred to for pastoral 

 purposes, occupying, as it does in many places, patches of several acres in 

 extent, and everywhere preventing, by the rapidity of its growth, the attempts 

 of the sheep to make their way through it, or to reach the scanty grass 

 growing about it. 



Whilst passing through Queen Charlotte Sound during i-ecent visits to 

 Nelson, I was struck with the very i-apid extension of the same plant over all 

 the open parts of the hills, and was led to make enquiries in reference to it, as 



