I04 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



simple and forked, extending to margins, slightly clavate : fertile frond two inches 

 shorter and narrower, the stipe usually longer, pinnae few, alternate and opposite, two 

 to three lines long, narrow linear, much falcate or curved upwards, distant, sessile, and 

 largely decurrent on rachis ; tips obtuse and mucronate ; the ultimate lobe long and 

 very narrow. Involucre narrow, not extending to tips, at first incurved, afterwards 

 recurved and everted, margin entire. Sori brown profuse, covering mid-rib and rachis 

 also when lobes opposite." 



Now, the meaning of the whole of the above (as my readers will see by the figures 

 which I have drawn from it) is that Mr. Colenso found some plants of Lomaria 

 lanceolata, the caudices of which divided into several crowns, and whose barren fronds 

 were a little narrower, and had shorter, straighter lobes than usual. The strength of 

 the plant being divided among several crowns, instead of supporting only one, 

 depauperation was bound to ensue. Curiously enough, when I had made the drawing, 

 and then went to compare it with a plant of Lomaria lanceolata in one of my own 

 cases, and see in what the differences consisted, I found that my own fern was similarly 

 parting into separate crowns ; so that the only apparent real distinction vanished. 

 My plant is an accidental seedling, which came up in my greenhouse ; so that I do 

 not know from whence the spore originated. I have no doubt, however, that branching 

 plants of L. lanceolata occur near Wanganui ; though I never noticed them, because 

 the fern is so common that one pays no heed to it, unless when some particular 

 brilliancy of colour in the young frond attracts attention. 



LOMARIA DURA. (Lo-ma-re-a du-ra.) 



PLATE X., Nos. 4 and 4a. 



This fern only occurs in very exposed situations, close to the sea coast, towards 

 the south end of the Middle Island, say from about Lyttelton southwards, as well as 

 at the Sounds, and thence to the Auckland Islands ; and also at the Chatham Islands, 

 to which it was for some time supposed to be peculiar. In its general growth it is 

 very much like L. lanceolata, but the rhizome develops more frequently into a caudex, 

 and the texture is very thick, in fact almost fleshy. The fronds are also widest about 

 two-thirds of the way up, and are blunter at top and more gradually tapering below. 

 Sometimes the apex is ovate, with a long projecting terminal pinna. The pinnae of 

 ihe fertile fronds are also much closer together, wider, and thicker than those of L. 

 lanceolata ; so that they may even be said to be crowded. It is an easy fern to 

 cultivate, as I have seen it growing, without any shelter, in the Botanical Gardens at 

 Christchurch ; but it would probably be none the worse for an occasional spraying 

 -with salt water, and a little of the same applied to the soil in which it grows. It 

 probably does not need rich soil. Is also called " L. rigida." 



