8o DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



sometimes confluent and continuous. Involucres of same shape as the sorus, and 

 formed of the reflexed margin of the frond, bearing capsules on the under side. All 

 the New Zealand Adianta belong to the sub-genus Euadiantum, which has the veins 

 not anastomosing, and the first five belong to what is called the " Poly-sorus group." 



ADIANTUM DIAPHANUM. (A-de-an-tum di-af-an-um.) 



PLATE XIII., No. 5. 



This fern has slender creeping rhizomes, and small tubers on the roots. The 

 fronds grow in small tufts, with numerous roots. The stipes is black and smooth, and 

 about as long as the frond : rachis also black and smooth. The frond varies from 

 four to eight inches in length, and in its simplest form is narrowly lanceolate and 

 merely pinnate. Sometimes, however, a branch of the same form grows out from the 

 base of the main frond, and nearly at right angles to it, and more rarely a similar 

 branch is found on the other side. The pinnules are large in proportion to the frond, 

 shortly stalked, and oblong, the stalk being attached to one angle, and the opposite 

 one rounded. Their texture is thin, and colour very dark green. The lower ones 

 sometimes show a tendency to divide. The sori are numerous, placed in indentations 

 in the upper and outer edges of the pinnules, and kidney-shaped. The involucres are 

 of the same shape, and of a lighter green than the frond. 



The plant is found throughout the Colony, but is more common in the north than 

 in the south, and seems confined to level, and usually to alluvial ground, among high 

 bush, though it grows in lighter bush near Auckland. It is very easily cultivated, and 

 very quickly covers the whole surface in the pot with its delicate fronds. I notice that, 

 in a shady place in a greenhouse, the colour becomes far lighter than when growing 

 out of doors, or in a cooler place, and the plant becomes more attraftive. Some 

 confusion has arisen about the New Zealand Adianta, owing to their being incorreftly 

 named by Dr. Hooker, who called this plant " Adiantum affine." No doubt it was 

 this which led Mr. Colenso to describe it afresh, under the name of " Adiantum 

 heteromorphum," on account of its varying form. It grows in S.E. China, Aneiteum, 

 Java, Fiji, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island and New South Wales, and is also called 



A. setulosum. 



ADIANTUM AFFINE. (A-de-an-tum af-fi-ne.) 



PLATE VI., Ko. 1. 



Confined to New Zealand and adjacent islands. Has a creeping, scaly, black or 

 •dark brown rhizome, about an eighth of an inch in diameter, producing scattered 

 fronds. The stipes is about as long as the frond, black and smooth, with a scale or 

 two at its base. The rachis and costae are also black and smooth. The frond is 

 usually merely pinnate with alternate pinnae, but large fronds are more branched, and 

 sometimes bi-pinnate in the lower portion. The pinnules are rather oval in shape, but 

 pointed towards the stalk : texture coriaceous : colour dark green. The sori are 



