DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 55 



always found lovers of ferns not only willing but glad to afford each other any 

 information in their power. The botanical observers of the Colony are disgracefully 

 few, considering the ample field and unusual facilities for the work within the reach of 

 most settlers ; and hence it is only natural that a sort of Freemasonry should arise 

 between those who engage in the study. As I have stated, I have visited most parts 

 of the North Island from Cook's Strait to beyond Auckland, and have travelled south- 

 wards to beyond Otago, and compared notes with other colleftors, and yet am 

 doubtful on many points ; in faft, in some cases, the further information gained has 

 only increased my doubts. Considerable changes of form sometimes occur, as plants 

 grow and develop, and any one who has not had the opportunity of watching these, 

 may be misled by them ; while those who have had the opportunity naturally regard 

 similar changes as possible in other cases. There is thus an ample field still open for 

 observation in ferns alone, and it is to be regretted that those who have the best 

 opportunities for it do not, for the most part, avail themselves of them, but regard the 

 indigenous plants of the Colony merely as things to be destroyed as quickly as 

 possible, though many are of great value. 



TRIBE HYMENOPHYLLACEyE. (Hi-men-o-fil-la-ce-ae.) 

 Generally creeping-plants, with membranous fronds and marginal or axillary sori. 

 Involucres either two-valved or urn-shaped. Receptacle columnar or clavate, some- 

 times projecting as a long hair of greater or less length beyond the involucre. 

 Capsules sessile, surrounded by a complete horizontal or oblique ribbed ring. In New 

 Zealand it includes three Genera, 7;z>., Loxsoma, Hymenophyllum, and Trichomanes. 



GENUS LOXSOMA. (Lox-som-a.) 

 From Greek words signifying obliquely-ringed, the capsules being so. As our 

 New Zealand plant is the only one of the genus, its description will serve for that of 

 the genus also. 



LOXSOMA CUNNINGHAMII. (Lox-som-a Cun-ning-ham-e-i.) 



PLATE XII., No. 1. 

 Has the rhizome creeping, and densely covered with long reddish brown hairs. 

 Stipes long, and as well as rachis, smooth and usually of a light brown colour. Frond 

 broadly rhomboidal and often two feet high, including the stipes ; glossy dark green 

 on the upper surface, and lighter, often bluish, or white on the under one ; bi or tri- 

 pinnate. Pinnae wide apart, stalked, usually in pairs, and pointing much upward. 

 Secondary and tertiary pinnae also stalked, broadly rhomboidal, narrowing to 

 lanceolate in the upper ones, and also pointing upwards. The pinnules also point 

 much upwards, and are lanceolate and broadly sessile, their bases being continued 

 as a wing down the sides of the costae. They are so deeply cut as almost to justify 



