92 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



inwards and upwards ; veins regular and parallel, conspicuous, fine, pretty close (about 

 two and a quarter to a line), free and simply forked, with clavate apices, terminating 

 within the margin, which is slightly cartilaginous and crenulate, and closely and finely 

 serrulate, particularly towards and at apices of pinnae and terminal segments ; midrib 

 finely channelled above, and very conspicuous on under surface, slightly puckered, 

 evanescent towards apices of pinnae, very light straw-coloured, hairs (debris of, 

 remaining in lacunae in axils and bases of pinnae) bright red brown." 



Unfortunately the Rev. gentleman sent the specimen home to the Royal 

 Herbarium at Kew ; and as I was therefore unable even to borrow it, I have been 

 obliged to reconstru6l the frond as it were from his description. No doubt my drawing, 

 Plate XXV, No. 4, is not quite accurate, but still it ought to be sufficiently near to 

 enable the fern to be identified, for, as Mr. Colenso says, " it does not remind one at 

 first sight of any other of our New Zealand ferns." Farther on he says, " A plate of 

 Pteris cretica in Beddome's ferns of South India, has a tolerably good partial 

 resemblance, still it differs materially." He also notes points of resemblance to ferns 

 of other genera, and ends by saying, " In fine, when hereafter discovered in fruit, I 

 have little doubts of its belonging to one of the four genera, Pteris, Lomaria, 

 Nephrolepis, or Gymnogramma." To me and others it appears to be a common form 

 of Pteris cretica, and as that fern is found in Southern Europe, great part of Asia, 

 Australia, and Polynesia it would be by no means unlikely to occur in New Zealand, 

 particularly in the hot-spring region. If so, fertile fronds should be of the form shown 

 in figure No. 4a of the same plate. It seems curious, however, that the fern should 

 not have been gathered again, as Mr. Colenso mentions having several times written 

 to residents in the neighbourhood, asking them to try and get him further specimens, 

 and in a letter to myself he said he had even offered a reward for them. This shows 

 how little notice is taken, by travellers, of things immediately around them, since a 

 coach has run regularly for years through the locality where the fern was gathered, and 

 it probably grows beside some steep incline where passengers are accustomed to get out 

 and walk. Fern-colleftors visiting the locality should look for it ; as specimens would 

 be highly welcome to other collectors or to Museums. 



SUB-GENUS PCESIA. (Pee-ze-a.) 

 Has creeping rhizomes, and involucres more or less distinftly double. We have 

 two plants of this sub-genus. 



PTERIS AQUILINA. (Pter-ris ak-wil-i-na.) 



"BRACKEN," "BRAKE." MAORI NAMES " RARAUHE " AND " RAURAU." 



PLATE XIV., Nos. 1 and la. 

 This is the common fern which still covers large trafts of land in the Colony, and 

 formerly clothed a far larger portion, particularly near the sea-coast. It is botanically 



