72 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



but sometimes are more or less inserted in the side of a lobe near its base. The 

 involucres are vase-shaped, and the hair-like receptacle seldom protrudes far. 



This fern only grows among moss, beside waterfalls or in dark moist places by 

 the sides of streams, and thus probably often escapes notice, as its hair-like appear- 

 ance renders it somewhat difficult to distinguish, particularly if the moss is covered 

 with stalked spore capsules. It was first described by Mr. Colenso, who found it at 

 Waikare-moana, in the Uriwera country, but it occurs at various places in the 

 Wellington and Taranaki Provinces, as well as in Nelson, Westland, Canterbury, Otago, 

 and Southland, and if sought for will probably be found in many other localities. 

 It is an easy fern to cultivate, requiring little attention, beyond a moist atmosphere 

 favourable to the growth of the moss among which it creeps. I have had a plant of it 

 growing in a cool place for fully fifteen years, and it has not yet got beyond the 

 bounds of a six-inch pot, so that a patch of a yard or more in diameter must be 

 very aged. 



TRICHOMANES RIGIDUM VAR. STRICTUM. (Tri-kom-an-es rid-gid-um. 



Var. strict-um.) 



PLATE XXVIII., No. 3. 



This plant has a stout ereft rhizome, from which a number of fronds arise, and 

 grow nearly straight upwards. The roots are long and very wiry. The stipes is 

 usually about half as long as the frond, brown, stiff, smooth, and pohshed, with 

 occasionally a few short hairs at its base, and a narrow wing towards the top. 

 Rachis is usually narrowly winged towards the top. The frond is oblong, long and 

 narrow, rather stiff, of a yellowish green colour ; and usually tripinnatifid. Pinnae 

 stalked, ascending, lanceolate, and divided into long narrow lobes, which also point 

 upwards. Surfaces naked. The sori are few in number, stalked, and axillary. 

 Involucres urn-shaped with protruding hair-like receptacles. This fern sometimes 

 grows on the ground among moss, and sometimes on rotten logs, usually in rather 

 open bush, and occasionally among low shrubs, in the edges of clearings. It is how- 

 ever by no means common, though it has been gathered in most parts of the North 

 Island, and down the Western side of the South one, as far as the Sounds and at 

 various levels up to 3000 feet above the sea, but only here and there. For some time 

 I was doubtful whether it was properly classed, along with the next fern, as merely a 

 variety of rigidum, and I notice that Mr. Thompson still considers it a distinft fern. 

 Professor Kirk, however, kindly gave me a specimen from the Hunua, near Auckland, 

 which is quadripinnate and has the dark colour and broadly lanceolate shape of T. 

 elongatum, indicating that the two are really only forms of one plant. This fern was 

 called "T. strictum " by Dr. Hooker, and " T. leptophyllum " and "T. Cunninghamii " 

 by other authorities. It is only known to occur in New Zealand. It is a handsome 

 fern, often nine inches to one foot high, but it is difficult to cultivate, as when the roots 



