go DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



PTERIS TREMULA. (Pter-ris trem-u-la.) 



" SCENTED FERN." 

 PLATE XXIII., No. 2. 



This very handsome fern has a short erect rhizome producing fairly numerous 

 fronds. The stipes is long (often longer than the frond), stout, ereft, usually dark 

 reddish brown and shining. Rachis and costae also smooth and similar in colour. 

 Frond rhomboidal bi or tri-pinnate. Pinnae usually sub-opposite, ascending. Pinnules 

 cut right down to the costae, into long narrow, ascending lobes, which are much 

 broader in barren fronds than in fertile ones, being quite linear in the latter. Texture 

 herbaceous or sub-coriaceous. Colour usually rather bright green, with sometimes a 

 reddish tinge. Sori sub-marginal on both edges of lobes. Involucres narrow. 



This fern is found in Australia, Tasmania, and some of the islands north of 

 New Zealand as well as in the Colony, and a plant called " Pteris Chilensis," differing 

 from it only in having deeply toothed margins to its barren lobes, occurs in the 

 western parts of South America and its outlying islands. In New Zealand, Pteris 

 tremula is abundant in the North Island, but rare in the Middle one, where it seems only 

 to occur in the northern half. It often grows five feet high, and may be at once 

 distinguished by the strong aromatic odour, something like camomile, which its foliage 

 emits when bruised. In summer time, surveyors cutting lines through the warm 

 sheltered gullies in which it abounds, often find the smell so strong as to be unpleasant, 

 and I have heard it called the " Stinking Fern" on this account, though many people 

 rather Hke the scent. It is seldom found in high bush, as it evidently prefers a fair 

 amount of sunlight, and is more frequent on rather dry soil, on hill-sides, than in wet 

 ground at the bottom of a gully. It is easy to cultivate in rich light soil, and 

 produces spores so freely that any one growing it soon has an abundance of seedling 

 plants : but it is liable to be cut by sharp frosts, though slight ones will not hurt it. 

 It is said to ascend to a height of 3000 feet in the northern part of the Colony, but I 

 have never myself seen it even half that height above sea-level, in the country north 

 of Cook's Straits ; and it probably does not ascend even so high as this farther south. 

 I have two crested plants of it, and some others in which the foliage is almost as 

 curly as parsley ; but as generally happens with these abnormal forms, they are all 

 barren. 



PTERIS LONGIFOLIA. (Pter-ris Lon-jif-o-le-a.) 



PLATE XXT., No. 7. 



This fern was reported, about five years ago, as having been gathered in the 

 vicinity of Lake Tarawera, and as that region was buried more or less deeply by the 

 eruption of June, 1886, I should not have noticed it, but for being lately told by Mr. 

 J. B. Armstrong, of Christchurch, that he has twice had specimens sent to hirn by 

 persons on whom he thought he could rely, and who stated that they had met with the 



