FERN ALLIES OF NEW ZEALAND. O 



But really to understand fuUy the meaning of our first technical 

 definition, and to obtain a clear idea of the structure of the different 

 parts of ferns and note the application of the various terms applied 

 to them, we cannot do better than take a few growing specimens of 

 some common kinds and examine them in detail. We can then 

 compare them together and note the similarities and divergences of 

 their structure. I often hear the remark " I am very fond of ferns, 

 and like to gather and press them, but I don't know anything about 

 them, you know, as to their names and that sort of thing." If any- 

 body is really fond of ferns, such an one will not grudge a little 

 trouble to know something about them, and I can assure my readers 

 that any trouble taken for such an end will more than repay itself 

 in the increased zest and pleasure it will bring with it. 



For the purpose of our first examination then we will take thrfee 

 very familiar ferns, which anyone will be able to distinguish, and 

 which can be obtained in almost every part of New Zealand. These 

 are figured on the frontispiece, and are Polypodium hillardieri (fig. A), 

 a common climber on trees ; Lomaria fluviatilis (fig. B) and Asple- 

 nium bulbiferum (fig. C), the two latter being terrestrial ferns. 



Let us examine the Polypodium first. The stem (fig. A 1) — known 

 as the rhizome, from its root-like appearance — is many feet in length, 

 and as thick as one's little finger, and is covered with closely-pressed 

 brown scales. It bears at irregular intervals the leaf-like branches, 

 technically called fronds, but more commonly the leaves. The 

 stalk which forms their lower part (fig. A 2) is called the stipes, 

 while the continuation of it through the flat green lamina of the 

 frond (fig. A 3) is the midrib or casta, from which again veins and 

 veinlets branch. In the plate the arrangement of the veins cannot 

 be made out, but it is a very prominent feature in the fresh fronds. 

 The veins are seen to diverge from the midrib nearly at right angles, 

 then to branch into two, and these to branch again. In the spaces 

 between the main veins — termed the areoles — the fine veinlets are 

 seen to disappear in the texture of the frond. A representation of 

 this mode of branching is shown in PI. III. fig. 7, where a portion of 

 one of the fronds of this fern has been drawn. The frond is either 

 all of one piece with continuous imcut margins (as in fig. A3) 

 when it is simple, and its margin entire ; or it is more or less cut 

 into. Thus in fig. A 4, the blade is cut into numerous long narrow 



