DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



HE FOLLOWING are the ferns which have been reported as occurring in 

 New Zealand, arranged according to their botanical classification. A 

 guide to the pronunciation of each name is given, it being borne in mind 

 that where two vowels come together they are to be sounded separately. 

 Thus in trichomanoides the o and i are distinct from each other, and 

 not a diphthong, as in void : — 



SUB-ORDER GLEICHENIACE^. 

 Characterised by dorsal sori of from two to ten capsules, which open 

 vertically, and are surrounded by a broad transverse complete ring. 

 Rhizomes mostly creeping. Stipes often dichotomous. Fronds rigid : generally 

 large and dichotomously branched : frequently bearing axillary buds. Vernation 

 circinate. 



Two sub-genera of the genus Gleichenia are represented in New Zealand, vis — 

 Eugleichenia and Mertensia. Gleichenia (so called in compliment to the German 

 botanist. Von Gleichen) has sori consisting of few sessile capsules, situated on a lower 

 exterior veinlet. The pinnae are deeply pinnatifid. Fronds generally dichotomously 

 divided, and often proliferous from the axils of the forks. Rhizome creeping. In 

 Eugleichenia the sori are solitary at the point of a veinlet, and base of a lobe. Lobes 

 of pinnae small and sub-orbicular. It includes the following ferns. 



GLEICHENIA CIRCINATA. (Glike-ne-a sir-sin-a-ta.) 



PLATE II. No. 2. 



This fern has a slender dark brown creeping rhizome with many small scales. 

 The stipes is dark brown or black, slender and ereft ; and varies from a few inches to 

 two feet or more in height : it is generally glossy and rigid, but when closely examined 

 is seen to be furnished with numerous small scales, particularly when young. At its 

 top two rachides or costae, for they may be called either, branch out horizontally in 



