124 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



stunted, not more than 6in. high. The frond grows erect, and is broadly triangular in 

 shape, with short oval or triangular pinnae, not very deeply lobed. It parts into 

 separate crowns more than other forms. Other dwarfed forms, intermediate between 

 the normal and the last described, grow in the crevices of rocks in open ground 

 throughout the colony, particularly at high levels. I have already said that the 

 quadripinnatifid plant known as "A. bulbiferum var. Shuttleworthianum " seems more 

 properly to belong to this species. All the varieties are very easily cultivated, par- 

 ticularly in finely pulverised rotten wood or leaf-mould. 



ASPLENIUM RICHARDI. (As-ple-ne-um Rich-ard-i.) 



PLATE XXVIII., No. 5. 



This is a plant that only occurs in New Zealand, and is a sort of puzzle to col- 

 lectors, because it is a question how far it ought to be classed as a distinct species. 

 It seems to form a connecting link between several other ferns, and to pass, by 

 insensible degrees, into them. In its large forms, sometimes ift. high, it looks like 

 Asplenium bulbiferum var. tripinnatum, with the thick texture of A. flaccidum. In 

 other smaller ones it is only distinguishable by its thick texture from A. Hookerianum 

 var. Colensoi ; while in others, again, it seems to be merely a narrow triangular ovate 

 or lanceolate A. flaccidum. The first of the above forms is the only one which I 

 know to occur in the North Island ; but I have seen fronds and plants of all the others 

 in possession of collectors at Christchurch and Dunedin, and was surprised to find 

 how they differed. The frond drawn in the plate was taken from the plant which 

 was the most distinct from all other species of any which I saw, and it may therefore 

 fairly be regarded as the typical form. 



The rhizome is short, stout, erect and slightly scaly, with a crown of about eight 

 fronds. Stipes of medium length, erect, stiff, green, and slightly scaly at very base 

 only. Rachis smooth, green, and slightly flexuous. Frond long-triangular, tri-pinnate. 

 Pinnse and secondary pinnae broad and stalked, the latter being flabbellately cut, nearly 

 or quite down to the costae, into long, narrow, oval or lanceolate pinnules or lobes, 

 bearing sori on the lower portion of their upper edges only. Sori short, marginal and 

 black. Involucres membranous, pale green, and not very distin6l. The plant was 

 growing well in a gentleman's fernery at Dunedin, and I think he said it came from 

 near Queenstown, and I have since received a similar one from Mr. J. B. Armstrong, 

 of Christchurch. As my readers will see, it bears a resemblance to A. bulbiferum var. 

 A. tripinnatum, A. Hookerianum var. Colensoi, and also to A. flaccidum, and yet is 

 distinct from either, parti :ularly in the fan-like arrangement of its ultimate divisions. 



SUB-GENUS ATHYRIUM. (A-thy-fi-um.) 

 Distinguished by having tha veins free and sori more or less curved, sometimes 

 even horseshoe-shaped. It includes 



