DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FEUNS. 



ring of tall ereft ones within them. The stipes of the barren frond is short and scaly, 

 and the rachis is also scaly, arid of a brownish green colour. The frond itself is often 

 eighteen inches long, by not more than two inches broad, being of the same width 

 nearly from end to end. The pinnae are round or oval, with indented edges, and very 

 numerous. The lower ones are stalked, or very narrowly sessile ; the upper ones 

 more broadly so, and the terminal one rhomboidal or triangular. Sometimes the 

 upper pinnae are connefted, that part of the frond being merely pinnatifid. Colour 

 dark olive-green ; texture sub-coriaceous, and rather rough. The fertile pinnae have 

 longer stipites, and the pinnae are short, narrow and turned upwards, so as to lie close 

 to the rachis. It occurs, certainly, up to 2000 feet elevation, and I think I have seen 

 it even higher, round the base- of Ruapehu. It is very easily cultivated, provided it 

 has shade and moisture, and, from the manner in which its barren fronds droop over 

 the edge of the pot, is very effeftive. It would be a good fern for basket culture, but 

 for its requiring a good deal of water. I have seen very beautiful groups formed of its 

 bleached fronds, stuck in vases under glass shades, as ornaments, its drooping charafter 

 coming in very effeftively in such work. It is also a very good fern for use in what 

 is called splash-work, or for skeleton-leaves. 



LOMARIA NIGRA. (Lo-ma-re-a ni-gra). 



PLATE XXV., Nos., 4 and 4a. 



This fern is also peculiar to New Zealand, where it is only found in dark damp 

 woods at high levels. It is not plentiful anywhere, but seems more common on the 

 moist West Coast of the Middle Island than elsewhere, and also to descend to a 

 lower level. Its rhizome is short, thick, ereft, and scaly, with a crown of fronds on its 

 top. The stipes is short, ere6t, and scaly. Rachis also more or less scaly. The 

 barren fronds are oblong, but usually wider towards the apex than below. They are 

 cut, right down to the rachis, into oblong or rounded pinnae with indented edges and 

 broad bases. The terminal pinna is always very much larger than the others, and often 

 lobed. The lowest pair of pinnae are also larger than those just above them and 

 often lobed. The texture is coriaceous ; colour very dark blackish green (whence the 

 name) and veins indistinft. The pinnae of the fertile fronds are far apart, and very 

 narrow indeed, in fa6l, linear ; the terminal one being usually longer than the rest. 

 The very dark colour of this fern renders it quite unmistakeable, but it has no beauty, 

 and is only grown for curiosity's sake. It requires to be kept in a very moist case, 

 and is so liable to have its fronds overgrown by moss, as only to be kept sightly by 

 constant attention, for the moss seems to make the fronds rot. Still, with care, it can 

 be kept alive for many years. I suspect that it is this liability to be destroyed by 

 moss that makes it so rare, as otherwise there seem to be hosts of dark moist spots 

 every way suited to it, but in which it does not occur. 



