94 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



PTERIS SCABERULA. (Pter-rls sca-ber-ru-la). 



PLATE XIX., No. 5. 



This fern is abundant throughout the Colony, and is generally about the first to 

 grow on the faces of landslips and side-cuttings. It seems confined to New Zealand 

 and the Chatham Islands. It has a widely-creeping, brown, scaly or velvety rhizome, 

 from which fronds spring at short distances. Stipes generally about half as long as 

 the frond, erect, moderately stout, reddish or yellowish brown, sometimes smooth 

 and glossy, and sometimes velvety. Rachis and costse the same, the former often 

 slightly zigzagged. Fronds lanceolate or oblong, bi or tri-pinnate, Pinnae stalked and 

 cut into very numerous small oblong or lanceolate ultimate segments. Sori sub- 

 marginal, yellowish brown, and almost covering the undersides of the segments. 

 Involucres formed by reflexed margin and soon covered by the capsules. Texture 

 harshly coriaceous. Colour bright yellowish green. Height seldom more than two 

 and a half feet. 



This is one of the prettiest of New Zealand ferns, and very useful for bouquets, as 

 its lacelike sub-division makes it show to advantage, while at the same time its wiry 

 texture keeps it from drooping. It varies however a good deal in the delicacy of its 

 foliage in different localities. Near Wanganui, I have gathered it most minutely 

 divided and lacelike, while at Auckland I saw specimens which were so coarse and 

 broad, both in their form and in their segments, that at first I took them for 

 Nephrodium velutinum. It is a very easy fern to cultivate, but likes plenty of pot- 

 room ; in faft, it so soon overgrows a pot that it is best always to haye a young plant 

 or two coming forward, to replace those which have become too large for pot-culture. 

 It is best to take up seedlings with a good ball of earth attached to thpm, as the fronds 

 of small plants are more numerous and more delicate than those of large ones. It 

 grows best in rather poor sandy loam or alluvium. 



SUB-GENUS LITOBROCHIA. (Li-to-bro-ke-a.) 

 Has the veins anastomosing, with free included veinlets. Rhizomes sometimes 

 erect sometimes creeping. Foliage broad. 



PTERIS MACILENTA. (Pter-ris mas-sil-len-ta.) 



PLATE VII., No. 1. 



This is a favourite plant with fern-growers, as its dark yet bright green colour, 

 and distinct leaf-like pinnules, are very striking. It is confined to New Zealand. It 

 has a stout erect rhizome, and a crown of rather numerous fronds, which are sometimes 

 five feet high. The stipes is about as long as the frond itself, and like the rachis and 

 costae, yellow or light brown, stiff, erect and glossy. Frond bi to quadri-pinnate and 

 triangular. Pinnae consisting merely of costae and the leaf-like pinnules. Pinnules 

 stalked, oval, deltoid, rhomboidal, or like parallelograms with two obtuse and two 



