156 DE^RIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



distinguished from " O. vulgatum," by having from two to four barren fronds, growing 

 out of each other's bases, before the fertile spike appears, and a tuberous rhizome; but 

 the distinction is disputed by some authorities. The fronds are usually narrowly- 

 lanceolate, but sometimes widen gradually upwards, and have the end rounded. It is 

 not very common, but more so than is generally supposed. To cultivate it, it is best 

 to take up a sod containing it. The spread of hawkweed in New Zealand has made 

 it far more difficult than before to distinguish this and O. vulgatum from the similarity 

 of the weed's appearance. I fancy, too, that the hawk-weed is killing it, as it seems 

 aftually growing scarcer. 



GENUS BOTRYCHIUM (Bo-trik-e-um), 

 So called from the Greek word " botrus " a bunch of grapes, because the bunch of 

 capsules has a somewhat similar appearance. It has the capsules arranged, in two 

 rows, on the faces of spikes, which form a compound panicle. 



BOTRYCHIUM LUNARIA. (Bo-trik-e-um lu-na-re-a.) 



PLATE XXI., No. 8. 



This little fern occurs in Iceland, and throughout Europe from the Arctic region 

 to Spain and Italy. In Asia it is found from Kamschatka to the Himalayas ; in North 

 Western America, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Canada. In the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, it has heen gathered in South Australia, Tasmania, Patagonia, and at one 

 place in New Zealand, at the back of the Canterbury Distrift, by Mr. J. D. Enys. He 

 says, " On 15th November, 1882, I was engaged laying out the. line of a wire fence 

 across a piece of ground of a peaty nature resting on a stiff clay, about 2600 feet 

 above the sea, when I detected the first specimen of this well-known fern. After 

 a close search I failed in finding a second ; indeed, the first specimen had only just 

 shown up. About a week later, I found a number more showing up in two spots in 

 the same neighbourhopd ; a month or so later not one remained ; but this may be 

 partly owing to the dry season." This description of the locality in which the plant 

 was found tallies exactly with the kind of places in which the fern occurs in England, 

 where it grows from three to ten inches high ; and the shortness of its duration is even 

 less than that of the English plant, which comes up in late Spring and dies down in 

 Autumn. I have not seen the New Zealand plant, and the figure on the Plate is, 

 therefore, lithographed from an English specimen, which, however, agrees exaftly with 

 Professor Kirk's description of the Mount Torlesse one, at Volume XVI, page 366, of 

 the Philosophical Transactions. He says, " The Mount Torlesse specimens do not 

 exceed three inches in height, the roots are of a wiry character, and the base of the 

 stem is furnished with a membranous sheath ; the sterile portion of the frond is pinnate, 

 and consists of from two to four pairs of flabellate sessile pinnules, and a deeply-cleft 

 terminal pinnule ; the fertile frond is sparingly branched, and does not exceed one 

 inch in length ; the sporangia are bright yellow in colour." He further adds, " A 



