DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 127 



which, if they had been growing in a fernery, I should have at once said were from 

 England, as the fronds were short, almost deltoid, and had the lower pinnae consider- 

 ably deilexed. At Wanganui I have seen plants with short ovate fronds, and almost 

 black in colour ; while others from the West Coast of the Middle Island have been of 

 a golden brown, rather than green hue. Some plants, too, are very much harsher in 

 texture than others, and there is enormous variation in the hairiness or scaliness of 

 different plants. In some plants, the lower part of the pinnules is auricled on the 

 upper side, but in others not so. Still there is a general resemblance that makes the 

 fern quite unmistakeable. Sometimes the caudex is branched, and has several crowns. 

 There used to be a plant in the Makirikiri Valley, near Wanganui, with seven branches, 

 the tallest of which was fully five feet high ; but I believe it has been destroyed 

 through the clearing of the bush. 



This fern is found throughout New Zealand, and grows in both light and heavy 

 bush, as well as among mere scrub. I have seen it at all levels from a few feet above 

 the sea up to over 3000 feet elevation, and more abundant at the high levels than at 

 low ones. It also seems far more abundant in the Middle Island than in the 

 Northern one, particularly at low levels. It seems, in its various forms, to occur all 

 over the world, though it is said to be rare in the extreme north of Europe, Asia, and 

 America. The New Zealand plant has also been called " A. venustum," " A. pul- 

 cherrimum," "A. Waikarense," and " Polystichum vestitum." It is very hardy, and 

 easy to cultivate, and is sometimes crested. I have also seen a plant with branching 

 fronds. A form of it called Aspidium proliferum occurs in Tasmania, and has lately 

 been found near Dunedin. It bears buds all along the upper side of the rachis, where 

 the pinnae are joined on to it, and every bud becomes a new plant. I also saw another 

 very curious proliferous form in a friend's fernery at Dunedin. Each frond had a very 

 large bud on the under side of the rachis, just where the pinnate lateral pinnae ended, 

 and the pinnatipartite portion of the frond began. When the frond begins to wither, 

 the weight of the bud bears down the end, till the bud touches the ground, when the 

 bud takes root and grows independently. Before this occurs, however, the bud will 

 have produced a crown of several good sized fronds, which come up on both sides of 

 the rachis ; so that there is a handsome young plant on top of the parent frond. 

 There is also a plant, which was called by Mr. Colenso, " Polypodium sylvaticum," but 

 is classed in the Synopsis as merely a non-indusiate form of A. aculeatura. I do not 

 know how it appears at other parts of the Colony, but the plants which I have seen 

 near Wanganui have not only no involucres, but are so much broader in the fronds 

 longer in the stipes, looser in the general foliage, and narrower in the pinnules, that I 

 think it may fairly be considered a distinft fern. It is possibly classed with Asp. 

 aculeatum, because one English and some South American forms of that fern have 

 also no involucres. 



