DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 59 



smooth and narrowly winged towards the top. The rachis and costae are also more 

 broadly winged; in fa6l, the frond is hi or tri-pinnatifid rather than pinnate. The pinnae 

 and secondary pinnae are wide and spreading, and the ultimate lobes or segments 

 rather broad in proportion to their length, more or less membranous, and varying from 

 light to dull olive green. The sori are numerous, terminal, sometimes apparently sub- 

 axillary, large, and enclosed in large involucres of a round or oval form, with entire 

 edges. This fern has the peculiarity of staining the paper red or brown when drying, 

 whence it is also called " sanguinolentum ;" and when dry it has a strong odour like 

 the old-fashioned medicine called " Gregory's mixture," which it retains for years, so 

 that it is quite unmistakable. From the position in which it naturally grows, it 

 shrivels up and looks dead in dry weather, but as soon as a shower comes it freshens 

 up as green and bright as ever. From this it may be supposed that it is an easy fern 

 to cultivate, but it is not so. The only way to succeed with it is to carry home a 

 branch, or piece of one, on which it is growing. This placed in a glazed case or 

 under a bell glass will last for years with occasional watering, but it must not be too 

 much wetted or it will grow mouldy and rot. A small branch covered with this fern 

 set upright under a glass shade is pretty, and its colour is generally brighter when so 

 grown than when in the bush. This fern becomes hairy as one ascends to high levels, 

 till it assumes the form called by Mr. Colenso " Hymenophyllum villosum " (Plate 

 XIX., No. 7. No doubt, the hairiness is a proteftion from the cold, as the plant 

 appears to differ in no other way. The peculiarity however seems to conneft it with 

 another class of the Hymenophylla, viz., the hairy ones ; just as the partially-winged 

 stipes connect it and Mr. Colenso's " Hymenophyllum erecto-alatum " wnth the 

 following, which have their stipites winged throughout. The same gentleman's 

 " Hymenophyllum lophocarpum " is this fern tailed, and slightly hairy. H. polyanthos 

 occurs throughout the tropical and temperate regions of both hemispheres, but 

 apparently not in Australia. 



HYMENOPHYLLUM DILATATUM. (Hi-men-o-fil-lum di-la-ta-tum.) 



PLATE XVI., No. 1. 

 This is a very handsome fern of a dark, but bright, green colour, which grows 

 plentifully in the damper parts of gullies, upon tree-trunks and rotten logs. It has a 

 long, thin, wiry, creeping, black or dark brown, velvety rhizome, without scales, and 

 spreads over considerable surfaces, though the fronds are seldom close together. The 

 stipes is dark brown, and very narrowly winged throughout, though the wings die away 

 almost, or quite, to nothing towards the base of the stipes. The rachis is more 

 broadly winged, as are also the costae. The fronds are from six inches to more than 

 two feet in length, but vary less in width ; the short ones grow erect, but the long ones 

 are usually pendulous. They are usually tri-pinnatifid, but large ones are sometimes 



