DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



A second class is called the " attenuata group," and is charafterised by having 

 ample ovate fronds with many pinnae. The following New Zealand ferns belong to it : 



LOMARIA DISCOLOR. (Lo-ma-re-a dis-col-or). 



MAORI NAME " PIUPIU." 

 PLATE IV., Nos. 2 and 2a. 



This fern has thick creeping rhizomes ramifying over large spaces of ground, and 

 sending up caudices two to three feet high, crowned with numerous fronds. The 

 stipes is short, stout, and of a shining light brown or straw colour, but furnished with 

 narrow scales at the base. The barren fronds are broad, and taper to both ends. 

 They are very deeply cut into numerous alternate, rather narrow, tapering pinnae or 

 lobes. The texture is coriaceous, and the colour of the upper side bright glossy green. 

 That of the under side varies from almost white to reddish brown, on which the veins 

 show very distinftly. It is this double colouring of the fronds from which the plant 

 takes its name. The barren fronds form an outer ring leaning outwards, and the fertile 

 ones stand erect within it. These are about the same length as the barren ones, but 

 not so wide, the pinnae being short and narrow, but with large leafy bases. The sori 

 are linear and sub-marginal, covering the under-surface of the narrowed part of the 

 pinnae. Involucres narrowly marginal and hidden by the sori. 



This fern is abundant all through the Colony and the adjacent islands, from 

 Norfolk Island to the Auckland Islands, and it also grows in Australia. It is found in 

 both heavy and light bush, sometimes almost in the open plain, and will hold its ground 

 for several years, even when the bush is cleared. It seems, however, to prefer dry, or 

 at all events well-drained land, and not to grow in very wet soil. It is easily cultivated' 

 in sandy loam and leaf-mould, but is best moved when young, as it grows pretty rapidly. 

 I have seen a very beautiful bi-pinnatifid form of it ; the pinnae of the barren fronds 

 being deeply cut into pointed lobes. The plant, however, produces no fertile fronds. I 

 also lately saw a form, found near Stratford, in the Taranaki Provincial Distrift, which 

 has the stipes nearly, or quite, as long as the frond. 



LOMARIA PAUCIJUGA. (Lo-ma-re-a Pau-se-ju-ga). 



PLATE XXIX., No. 6. 



In Volume XX, of the Philosophical Transactions, page 222, the Rev. W. Colenso 

 describes, under the above name, a fern which appears to be new. It was found in 

 1887, on the side of Tongariro,, by Messrs. Owen and Hill, who sent the specimen to 

 Mr. Colenso. The following is the description, from which the drawing is made : 



" Plant small : caudex (specimen, a top broken off) ascending, one inch long, 

 hard and woody, as thick as a common lead-pencil, with several old stipites and scales 

 on it below the living fronds. Fronds (four, all sterile) sub-opposite, or tufted, erect,, 

 equal, uniform; lamina herbaceous, olive-green, ovate, sub-acuminate, three inches long, 



