74 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



GENUS DAVALLIA. (Da-val-le-a.) 

 Named after Edmond Davall, a Swiss botanist. Has sori intra or sub-marginal, 

 globose or elongated, either laterally or vertically. Involucres terminal on the veins, 

 various in shape, united or free at the sides, apex always open. Capsules stalked. 

 Fronds various in size and division, herbaceous or coriaceous, veins always free, 

 rhizomes usually creeping and scaly. Three sub-genera are recorded in the Colony. 



DAVALLIA FORSTERI. (Da-val-le-a Fors-ter-i.) 

 This plant belongs to the sub-genus Humata, which has its involucres attached 

 by a broad base, but the apex and sides free. It is said to have been gathered at 

 Dusky Bay by Mr. Forster, the naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook's second 

 expedition in 1772, and whose specimens are in the British Museum. It has never 

 since been found, however, though carefully sought for at Dusky Bay, and it appears 

 either that the plants must have been destroyed by the whalers who afterwards 

 occupied the bay, or that the specimens were aftually gathered elsewhere (possibly 

 in some Pacific island) but credited to Dusky Bay by mistake. This last seems now 

 to be the general opinion of New Zealand botanists. I am unable to give a figure of 

 it, but the following is the description. Stipes six to eight inches long, naked, straw- 

 coloured. Fronds six inches long, rhomboid, quadri-pinnate ; pinna and pinnules 

 ascending, rhomboid, stalked, the lowest the largest, cuneate, truncate on lower side 

 at base ; final segments ligulate cuneate, two to four lines long, under half a line broad, 

 texture sub-coriaceous, surfaces naked. Sori minute, terminal, with lamina produced 

 on both sides as a border. Forster called it Adiantum clavatum. It is more nearly 

 allied to a New Caledonian plant than to either of the other New Zealand ones, but 

 has never been reported except from Dusky Bay. 



DAVALLIA NOV^ ZELANDIyE. (Da-val-le-a No-vae Ze-lan-de-ae.) 



PLATE XVIII., No. 2. 



This is one of the most beautiful New Zealand ferns and fortunately is by no 

 means rare. It belongs to the sub-genus Leucostegia. There are two forms of it 

 generally known. The one has a moderately stout rhizome, which creeps very rapidly 

 from the time when the first tiny fronds appear. This rhizome is furnished with light 

 brown scales or hairs, and the fronds grow from it at some distance apart. The stipes 

 is about half as long as the frond, reddish brown and polished, or with only a few hairs 

 at the base. Rachis the same and flexuous. Frond generally six to eighteen inches 

 long, four to eight inches broad, tri-pinnate, generally ovate or lanceolate in shape. 

 Pinnae stalked. Pinnules stalked, and divided into lanceolate segments. Ultimate 

 lobes narrow and forked. Sori numerous on the side lobes of the segments. Invo- 

 lucres attached by a narrow base, and open at the sides and apex, bending right over 



