DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 65 



HYMENOPHYLLUM CHEESEMANNII. Hi-men-o-fil-lum Cheese-man-ne-i. 



PLATE v., NO. 3. 

 This is probably the smallest fern in the Colony, as it seldom, if ever, exceeds 

 half an inch in length. It has slender thread-like rhizomes, and grows in mats on the 

 upper branches of trees. It can hardly be said to have a stipes, as the frond develops 

 almost at once from the rhizome. The frond consists sometimes of a single broad 

 lobe, more often of two, and occasionally of three radiating from a common centre. 

 Their texture is membranous, and each is furnished not only with a costa, but with a 

 stout vein extending all round the margin. The sori are very conspicuous, being 

 wider than the lobes on whose ends they are situated, and so swollen as to be almost 

 globular. The involucres are large enough to quite cover the sorus, and have entire 

 edges without teeth or hairs. This fern is named after its discoverer, Mr. T. F. 

 Cheeseman, of the Auckland Museum, who found it in the northern part of the North 

 Island. It has since, been gathered, however, as far south as Stewart's Island, as well 

 as at intervening points; so that it is no doubt general, though its small size causes 

 it to be overlooked, particularly as it grows among moss, and usually merely in the tops 

 of trees, so that the only chance of finding it is bv searching in freshly-felled bush, 

 before it is burnt. It seems to grow lower down the trees as one gets farther south, 

 and Mr. Kirk describes it as occurring on the bases of shrubs, on Ruggedy Mountain, 

 Stewart's Island. So far as I know, no one has tried to grow it, but it would no 

 doubt thrive in a glazed case, if a piece of a branch covered with it were placed there, 

 and it would be worth the space it occupied, even as a curiosity. It has not been 

 gathered outside New Zealand. 



HYMENOPHYLLUM TUNBRIDGENSE. (Hi-men-o-f^l-lum Tun-bridg-en-se.) 



PLATE XIV., No. 7. 

 This is the " Tunbridge fern" or " Filmy fern " of England, and like the pre- 

 ceding one, has thread-like creeping rhizomes, and covers the surfaces of tree-trunks, 

 roots, and logs, with a dense mat of its fronds. It also grows on rocks in some places. 

 Stipes rather long and wiry, dark brown, with a few short hairs. Rachis and costae 

 the same with longer hairs. Costae sometimes narrowly winged above. Frond seldom 

 exceeding two inches long, oval or oblong, bi-pinnate. Pinnae well stalked. Secon- 

 dary pinnae well apart, stalked, and sometimes divided into two to four oblong lobes 

 spreading out like a fan, and at others forming a lengthened pinna with several 

 alternate lobes. Texture membranous, colour usually dark green. Sori generally 

 classed as supra-axillary, which means that they grow near to, but not quite in the 

 axils. When closely examined under a good magnifying glass, however, they will be 

 seen to be really terminal, on very much shortened lobes : it being not unusual to find 

 a barren lobe alongside and completing a pinna. The involucres are round, sunk in 



