54 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



usually arranged in opposite or sub-opposite pairs. Both they and the secondary 

 pinnae are very shortly stalked. The latter taper from the middle to the point, and are 

 divided into pinnules, a few of which, and only towards the base of the frond, are 

 stalked or narrowly sessile, and the rest broadly sessile. In barren fronds, the edges 

 of the pinnules are rather deeply toothed ; but, strangely enough, fertile fronds at first 

 have them entire or only slightly toothed towards the tips. As the sori develop, 

 however, the entire edges become deeply cut into rounded lobes, which curl over 

 slightly. The sori are very large, and as they do not open widely they are very 

 obviously two-valved. Only a very few fronds are fertile, and these generally only 

 over the lower portions of the pinnae towards the base of the frond. The texture of 

 the frond is very harsh ; colour, olive green above, bluish green below ; veins very 

 conspicuous. This plant is found on level rather moist land in high bush, and grows 

 extremely well in cultivation, provided it has a fair amount of shade and shelter. 



The other plant is only certainly found in a few places well to the North of 

 Auckland, and apparently only beside rivers. It has a stout clean caudex from four to 

 six feet high (Mr. Kirk says he has seen it ten feet), and is said to have fronds like 

 the other, but forming a crown. The long stipes, however, which is so striking a 

 characteristic of the plant which I have been describing, is hardly reconcilable with 

 one's idea of a tree-fern, and hence I conclude that the plants are really different. 

 About ten years ago, I saw in the Murimotu country, south-west of Ruapehu, a stunted 

 tree-fern which attrafted my attention from its peculiar appearance; and from its growing 

 close to a patch of D. lanata, I thought it might be the arborescent form and that the 

 others might be seedlings from it. On close examination, however, I decided that it 

 was merely a chance form of D. fibrosa, with shorter broader fronds, thinner caudex, 

 and larger sori than usual : and as I have since seen many large patches of D. lanata 

 and have never found any similar tree-fern near them I feel sure that I was right, and 

 therefore think that the northern plant is merely a similar form of D. fibrosa approxi- 

 mating so closely to D. antarctica that probably it was rightly classed with that fern, 

 though the true D. Lanata could hardly be so. In the case I have mentioned, there were 

 no intermediate forms. The plant was a solitary one ; but it is obvious that, if seed- 

 lings from it grow up near it they may present an intermediate appearance. My belief 

 is that the plant was a6lually a hybrid between D. fibrosa and D. lanata, as the former 

 was abundant close by, and the northern plants may be the same or have sprung from a 

 similar cross. This illustrates the difficulty with which fern-collectors in the Colony 

 have to contend. They know a fern as it occurs in a certain part of the Colony, per- 

 haps a large part, and yet it differs in some important respefil from the description 

 given of that fern from plants grown elsewhere. Hence doubts arise, which can only 

 be set at rest by visiting distant places and comparing notes with other colleftors; 

 and this may not always be practicable, though so far as my experience goes, I have 



