TODEA. 353 



T. h. compacta — com-pac'-ta (compact). 



This variety, for the name of which we cannot find any authority, is 

 far closer and denser than the type. It should be borne in mind that 

 T. hymenophylloides is of a very variable nature when raised from* spores, and 

 this predisposition to variation was sufficiently illustrated by a group of 

 a dozen or more seedlings, all different from one another, exhibited at the 

 great Fern Conference held at Chiswick in 1890. The' plants were selected 

 from a large batch of seedlings raised at Messrs. J. Veitch and Sons' nursery, 

 Chelsea, in 1884, and showed very strange departures, some being depauperated, 

 while others had all their leaflets terminating in a long, tail-like process ; but 

 none of them possessed the power of reproducing themselves, and, therefore, 

 could not be increased. 



T. intermedia — in-ter-med'-i-a (intermediate), Veitch. 



A robust-growing and very handsome form, raised in Messrs. J. Veitch 

 and Sons' nursery, at Chelsea. It appears to be intermediate between 

 T. hymenophylloides and T. superha. In the size, as also in the cutting of 

 the leaflets, it agrees with the former ; but the lower leaflets, instead of being 

 as large as the others, are very gradually reduced, as is the case in T. superha, 

 and their stalks are densely covered with short, woolly hairs. The same plant 

 has evidently made its appearance spontaneously in New Zealand, as may 

 be gathered from a note in Hooker's Synopsis Filicum, p. 428, and also from 

 Vlllustration Horticole, t. 90. It reproduces itself fairly true from spores. 



T. (Leptopteris) Moorei — Lep-top'-ter-is ; Moor'-e-i (Moore's), Baker. 



A beautiful species, native of Lord Howe's Island. Its broadly-oblong 

 fronds, IJffc. to 2ft. long, including the stalk, and 1ft. broad, are furnished 

 with overlapping, spear-shaped, stalkless leaflets IJin. to 2in. broad. The 

 leafits, also stalkless and spear-shaped, are very closely set and are cut down 

 nearly to the stalks into bluntish, strap-shaped lobes toothed on the outer 

 edge. The fronds are naked on both surfaces, their texture is thicker than in 

 the other species, and the oblong spore masses are placed against the midrib 

 near the base of the leafits. — Hooker, Synopsis Filicum, p. 524. 



T. (Leptopteris) pellucida— Lep-top'-ter-is ; pel-lu'-cid-a (transparent). 

 Synonymous with T. hymenophylloides. 



VOL. ni. 2 A 



