Prater 54, 
TODEA uymenopnuytiorpes, Rich. 
Hymenophyllum-like Todea. 
Topza (§ Leptopteris) hymenophylivides ; stipites tufted, a span to a foot long, 
and, as well as the rachis, deciduously ferruginous-tomentose, fronds oliva- 
ceous, membranaceous, one to two feet long, ovate-oblong, bipinnate ; pri- 
mary pinnee sessile, oblong, acuminate, often opposite, four to six inches 
long, secondary ones (or pinnules) crowded, one inch long, ovato-lanceolate, 
deeply pinnatifid, the segments narrow, simple or forked, acute; veins 
simple or forked, sori oblong at the base of each vein beneath, consisting of 
seven to nine large globose bipartite pedicellate reticulated coriaceous cap- 
sules. 
TopEa hymenophylloides. Rich. and Less. Fil. N. Zeal. in Voy. Astrol. p. 97. 
t. 16. Hook. Gen. Fil. t. 16. 
Topga pellucida. Carm. in Grev. and Hook. En. Fil. in Hook. Bot. Misc. v. 3. 
p. 232. Hook. Ic. Pl, Rar. v. 1. t. 8. A. Cunn. Fl. N. Zeal. in Hook. 
Comp. to Bot. Mag. p. 362. 
LeproptTeris hymenophylloides. Pr. Suppl. Tent. Pleridogr. p. 71. Hook. fil. 
Fl, N. Zeal. v. 2. p. 48. 
Has. New Zealand, Northern and Middle Islands, and as far south as Banks’ 
Peninsula, Banks, Forster, and all succeeding voyagers.—Cultivated at 
Kew. 
No figure can do justice to the beauty of this plant, especially 
of those specimens which exhibit fronds three feet long, with its 
delicate and finely cut fronds of the texture of Hymenophyllum or 
Trichomanes. Different however as is the texture of the frond 
from that of the much better-known Zodea Africana, yet the 
fructifications are the same. Although I was myself formerly 
disposed to preserve Presl’s genus Leptopterts for the present 
species, Zodea Fraseri, Hook. et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 101, and the 
still more beautiful Z: superba of Colenso (‘Century of Ferns,’ t. 
11), yet on a further comparison I think it best to constitute of 
them a section or subgenus. 
It is to be hoped the Z. superba will ere long be introduced 
to our gardens. It grows in dense tufts; some of the fronds, 
Mr. Colenso says, are “four feet in length, the old ones spread- 
ing outwards, while the younger ones, generally rising three at 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1862. 
