114 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



DOODIA CAUDATA. (Doo-de-a cau-da-ter.) 



THE " MOKE-MOKE," OR SACRED-FERN OF THE MAORIS. 

 PLATE XX., Nos. 4 and 4a. 

 This fern is supposed by the Maoris to grow naturally only at one spot on a spur 

 of the Rimutaka range, whence its name, which means " solitary." It has, however, 

 been found at other places, but when the natives are told so, they reply that " it must 

 have been carried there." There is no question that they prized the fern sufficiently 

 to carry it to distant localities, as I have seen plants that they had fetched from the 

 Rimutaka, and thus it may have been spread to places far removed from its original 

 habitat. Still, as it occurs in Australia, I believe it was more widely distributed in the 

 North Island and its dependencies than the Maoris knew, though it is only met with 

 locally. The Maoris profess Lo deteft a very delicious fragrance in it, and say that 

 they used it for scenting oil for the anointing of their bodies. I never could deteft 

 any scent in it, myself, though I have grown it for many years, and have only met with 

 two Europeans who said they could do so. The one described it as like tobacco, but 

 fainter, so that I fancy the smell arose from his own pipe or clothes. The other is a 

 florist, who said he could perceive a peculiar smell in both it and Doodia media, when 

 their fronds were ripe. As his ferns, however, grow in a greenhouse, containing many 

 flowering plants, I think a mixed scent from things in bloom at that time may have 

 been supposed to proceed from the Doodias. At all events if the fern really emits a 

 scent, it requires unusually keen olfactory organs to perceive it. 



Doodia caudata has a short, stout, ereft caudex which seems to flatten out rather 

 than divide, and thus soon produces a dense mass of fronds. My original plant which 

 came from the Rimutaka, and must be more than twenty years old, is nearly a foot in 

 diameter by nine or ten inches high, and has several hundred fronds, about half of 

 which are fertile, and the others barren, for D. Caudata difi^ers from D. media, in 

 producing distinft barren and fertile fronds. The stipes of the barren frond is short, 

 stiff dark-coloured and hairy. The rachis woolly and dark-coloured below, but smooth 

 and green above. The frond is oblong, pinnate, and rarely, if ever, more than four or 

 four and a half inches long, inclusive of the stipes. The pinnae are sub-opposite, the 

 lower ones being rounded at the ends, and furnished with large rounded auricles or 

 lobes which give them somewhat the trifoliated shape of a clover leaf. They are 

 shortly stalked. Higher up these lobes are shortened, and the pinnee become oval, or 

 oblong with rounded ends. Towards the top they become sessile on the rachis, and 

 the terminal one is lengthened, lobed, and obtusely pointed. The colour is bright 

 green ; texture almost membranous ; edges serrated and wavy, and venation indistinft. 

 The barren fronds grow more or less horizontally, unless forced upwards by the fertile 

 ones. The fertile fronds grow erect, or nearly so, and are often eight to nine inches 

 long, including the stipes. The stipes is fully three times as long as that of the barren 



