DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 105 



LOMARIA BANKSII. (Lo-ma-re-a Banks-e-i.) 



PLATE XXVI., Nos, 2 and 2a. 

 This is another sea-side fern, but occurs in less exposed situations than the last. 

 It is found, however, in caves among the rocks, near Wellington, where it is often 

 soaked with the salt spray in rough weather, and takes no harm. It seems peculiar to 

 New Zealand, where it is found at intervals from end to end of the Colony, but seems 

 nowhere very abundant. The rhizome is short, thick, fibrous, and has dark reddish 

 scales towards the top. It is sometimes prostn.te and sometimes ereft, and often 

 sends out crowns from its sides. The stipes is short, erect, black or dark brown, scaly 

 at base, smooth above. Rachis also smooth. Frond oblong or lanceolate, and 

 divided into long lobes or pinnae which are sometimes shortly oblong with rounded 

 ends, and sometimes almost circular; but are always joined to the rachis by a 

 broad base. There seem to be no separate fertile fronds, but the fertile pinnae are 

 placed towards the apex of what are otherwise barren fronds, sometimes extending 

 through nearly the whole" length. These fertile pinnae are much narrower than the 

 barren ones, but still are wider, in proportion to their length, than those of any other 

 fern in this group. The texture is coriaceous ; colour bluish green, and veins distinftly 

 visible. It grows freely in cultivation, but requires shade and moisture, and is the 

 better for being watered with a little salt-water occasionally. 



LOMARIA ALPINA. (Lo-ma-re-a al-pi-na.) 



PLATE XVII., Nos. 5 and 5a. 

 This fern has slender rhizomes covered with reddish or blackish scales, and 

 creeping in all direftions, so as to form quite a mat. Crowns of a few fronds each 

 spring from these at short intervals, some of the fronds being barren and some fertile. 

 The stipites of the barren fronds are generally about as long as the fronds themselves, 

 stiff, slender, erect, brown or reddish, smooth, or very slightly scaly. The barren 

 fronds are very narrowly oblong, and divided into a number of short bluntly-pointed 

 pinnae, with broad unwidened bases, and entire or slightly toothed edges. The texture 

 harshly coriaceous ; colour dark olive-green, and veins rather distinft. The fertile 

 fronds have the stipes much longer than the barren ones, and the fronds themselves 

 are generally somewhat longer. The pinnae are broad at the base, giving them the 

 appearance of being decurrent on the upper side, but narrow rapidly, and are set 

 downwards and outwards. Sori nearly covering the pinnae. As its name implies, this 

 fern is usually found at high levels, and yet it is occasionally met with only a few feet 

 above the sea. I have seen it growing in pretty dense bush, and also among manuka 

 scrub, and on open grassy plains. It is very easily cultivated, and soon overspreads 

 a considerable space. It is liable to the objeftion, however, that the original root-stock, 

 and the crowns adjacent to it, are apt to die out, so that the whole plant forms a rino- 



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