112 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



This fern is common from a little south of Auckland to the Northern extremity of 

 the North Island, but seems to disappear farther south, though it is said to have been 

 gathered, by Mr. Lyall, of the Acheron surveying vessel, at Massacre Bay, in the 

 Nelson Provincial District, as well as to have been found by other collectors near 

 CoUingwood. It is easily cultivated, in a warm moist atmosphere, when it will send 

 out its creeping rhizomes and produce fresh caudices in a short time. 



GENUS DOODIA. (Doo-de-a.) 



So called in compliment to Mr. Samuel Doody, a London bookseller, who was 

 Curator of the Chelsea Botanic Gardens, about 200 years ago, and was one of the first 

 persons who took to the study of ferns as a special branch of botany. It is 

 charafterised by having sori oblong or slightly curved, superficial, placed in one or 

 more rows, parallel with, and between, the mid-ribs and margins of the pinnae. 

 Involucres of same shape as the sori, and membranous. Veins forming one or two 

 series of arches between the midrib and edge, with the sori placed upon them. 



There is some difference of opinion among botanists as to the classification of 

 the New Zealand ferns of this genus, some reckoning three or four distin6l plants, 

 while others regard them as merely forms of one and the same. I feel no hesitation, 

 however, in adhering to the classification in the Synopsis, as it agrees with my own 

 observations, after having actually cultivated the plants for many years, and with those 

 of others who have done the same. It is, in fact, only by cultivating ferns that one 

 can get a thorough knowledge of them. Merely judging of them by dried specimens, 

 gathered in different localities, is sure to lead to mistakes. The distinction in the 

 Doodias is so great that I can hardly understand its having escaped notice. 



DOODEA MEDIA. (Doo-de-a me-de-a.) 

 This fern occurs in Australia, Tasmania, and the South Pacific Islands, as well as 

 in New Zealand. It is common in the Northern portion of the North Island, but 

 becomes rare and local farther south, and so far as I can learn has never been met 

 with south of Cook's straits. It grows in very slightly shady places, and at Auckland 

 I have seen it on the bases of cliffs, only just above sea-level. It used to grow on the 

 hill-faces on the south side of Wellington Harbour, which is the farthest south of any 

 locality in which I ever knew it to occur, but I fear it has disappeared, by reason of the 

 extension of building and clearing of the ground, as it occured among low manuka scrub. 

 It will grow on any poor ground, but will pay for better soil and shelter by increased 

 luxuriance. I greatly doubt its being really distinct from the Australian " Doodia 

 aspera," as my plants of the latter have, under cultivation, so completely assumed its 

 cliarafter that, except by the brighter rose-colour of the young fronds, and a greater 

 tendency to divide into separate crowns, I can see no difference between them. The 



