DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 6i 



HYMENOPHYLLUM JAVANICUM. (Hi-men-o-fil-lum Ja-van-ik-um). 



PLATE XV., No. 4. 



This fern was the " Hymenophyllum crispatum " of Dr. Hooker's flora, and is 

 found in damp forests throughout the Colony at all levels up to about 3000 feet, as 

 well as throughout India, Malaya, the Philippines and Australia. It is questionable 

 whether it is not really more beautiful than that last described, particularly in its more 

 minutely-foliaged, and lighter-coloured forms from high levels. The rhizome is rather 

 stout, smooth and creeping. Stipes and rachis ereft, stiff, brown, and broadly margined 

 with wings, which are much indented with crenulate hollows and are also very wavy, 

 from which peculiarities the fern derives its other name of " Hymenophyllum crispa- 

 tum." The fronds vary from two to eight inches long and are tripinnatifid. The 

 pinnae and secondary pinnae are deeply cut into narrow lobes, the edges of which are 

 sometimes entire or nearly so, but usually much crenulated and waved. Their texture 

 is membranous, and the colour of the young fronds very bright green which becomes 

 darker with age. When grown in a pot, the young fronds come up ereft among the 

 older ones which slope outwards, and the fronds grow closer together. This gives the 

 fern very much the appearance of having a dense crown of fronds, while the difference 

 in colour between the young and old fronds is very attractive. The sori are numerous 

 and large, with large entire-edged involucres, placed at the ends of the lobes. This 

 fern grows extremely well in a case, in a mixture of leaf mould and rotten sawdust ; 

 and no fernery should be without it. It is also a good fern to grow under a bell-glass 

 indoors. The only common variations seem to be those of size, coarseness or deli- 

 cacy of foliage, and darker or lighter colour, plants from higher levels being generally 

 smaller, lighter-coloured, and more finely divided and indented than those from near 

 the sea level. Mr. Colenso's " Hymenophyllum atrovirens " seems to be merely this 

 plant with plane lobes, and smaller sori than usual, and to form a connecting link 

 between it and 



HYMENOPHYLLUM MONTANUM. (Hi-men-o-fil-lum mon-ta-num.) 



PLATE XXVIII., No. 1. 



This fern was first found near the Whakatipu Lake by Mrs. Mason who sent it to 

 Professor Kirk, but has since been gathered at high levels in other parts of the Middle 

 Island. In its general appearance it looks like a stiff narrow form of H. Javanicum, 

 with entire and uncrisped wings and foliage, or small H. dilatatum ; but a closer 

 examination shows that it is differently divided, the pinnae being lobed only on their 

 upper sides. In faft all the lobes point upward and are slightly forked at their ends. 

 The rachis, too, is bent in a zigzag fashion from pinna to pinna, the stipes winged 

 nearly to the base, and the sori small and terminal, generally on the second lobes only. 

 The involucres are narrow, oval, usually with deeply toothed and jagged lips, and very 



