70 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



sori. In some cases, as in the plate, the soriferous lobes are shorter than the barren 

 ones. The plant will only be found in very moist situations, and so far as I know, no 

 one has cultivated it, its small size making it only worth growing as a curiosity. It 

 seems confined to New Zealand. 



TRICHOMANES LYALLII. (Tri-kom-an-ees Ly-al-le-i.) 



PLATE v., No. 4. 



This delicate little fern forms another connecting link between the Genera 

 Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes, and was at one time classed in the former. In 

 fact, it is very doubtful whether the old one was not the correct classification, as the 

 sori seem unmistakably those of Hymenophyllum, and the texture,- hairiness, and 

 general character are similar to those of H. subtilissimum. It seems only to grow on 

 the caudices of tree-ferns in very damp situations, but is found in such places nearly 

 from end to end of the Colony, particularly on the Western side. It has a very 

 slender creeping rhizome, and a long hair-like stipes. The frond can hardly be said 

 to have a rachis, as it divides and sub-divides into a number of long narrow lobes, 

 which spread out in a fan-like manner. They are extremely thin, and furnished with 

 veins along their centres, and bristle-like teeth and hairs along their edges. Colour, 

 golden brown or yellowish green. The sori are flat and round, inserted in the ends of 

 the lobes. Involucres with hairy edges. I do not know of any one but myself having 

 cultivated this fern, but a short length of a tree-fern caudex, covered with it, would 

 form a pretty objeft under a bell glass, if frequently wetted. 



TRICHOMANES HUMILE. (Tri-kom-an-ees hu-mil-e.) 



PLATE v.. No. 8. 



This little fern seems only to grow on steep faces of hard gravel, in very shady 

 damp bush. It has wiry thread-like creeping rhizomes, and spreads over considerable 

 patches, which it covers with its pendent fronds. The stipites are thin, smooth, wiry, and 

 winged towards the top. The frond has no distinct rachis, but forks and forks again, 

 often very irregularly, dividing ultimately into long narrow lobes, with naked surfaces and 

 entire edges. The texture is membranous, with a vein along the centre of each lobe. 

 The sori are few in number, and usually axillary or sub-axillary, and sunk in short 

 lobes. The receptacle usually projects, as a long hair, from the end of the vase- 

 shaped involucre. I have never known this fern cultivated ; but it could no doubt be 

 so, by cutting out a block of the gravel on which it was growing, and building it into 

 the wall on the shady side of a fernery. It is sparingly found throughout the North 

 Island ; but is very rare in the Middle one, being only found in its northern half. It 

 occurs in Java and the Pacific Islands ; and a closely allied form is found in tropical 

 America, South and West Africa, India, and the islands between these and Australia. 



