67 



Varietas Jlaceida. 



A. flaecidum, Porst. Prodr. 426 ; J. Hook. Fl. Antarct. i. 109 ; Fl. Nov. Zeel. 

 ii. 35 ; PL Tasm. ii. 146 ; Hook. Spec. Filic. iii. 205 ; A. odontites, E. Br. 

 Prodr. 151 ; A. heteropliyllum, A. 'Rich. Voy. de 1' Astrolabe, i. 74 ; A. ap- 

 pendiculatum, Presl, Tentam. Pteridogr. ; Sond. & MueU. in Linnsea, xxr. 

 718 ; Csenopteris flaccida, Thunb. Nov. Act. Petropol. ix. 158, t. D, fig. 1 

 &2; Scbk. Farrnkr. t.82; Spreng. Syst. Veg. iv. 90 ; C. odontites, Thunb. 

 1. c. t. B, fig, 1 ; Spreng. Anleit. iii. 115, t. 3, fig. 24 ; C. appendiculata, 

 Labill. 1. c. ii. 94, t. 243 ; Darea flaccida. Smith., Memoir Acad. Turin, v. 

 409 ; Darea odontites, Willd. Spec. Plant, v. 296 ; D. flaccida, Willd. 1. c. 

 295. 



Common on trees of the Chatham-Islands. 



Abundant in New Zealand and Tasmania and on fern-trees of 

 South-East Australia. 



This variety is known by its more or less coriaceous or even 

 carnulent simply or doubly pinnated fronds, by pinnatifid or pinna- 

 tisected acuminate pinnules with rather distant lobes, by generally 

 rather short occasionally elongated mostly marginal sori. 



Middle forms between this variety and A. bulbiferuni and A. 

 Richardi exist in our collections. The latter,, occurring in clefts of 

 mountain-rocks of New Zealand, must be regarded also as a variety, 

 remarkable for the often small size of its fronds and for its pinnules 

 being cut into fine narrow or short lobes, bearing marginal sori. 

 Neither this variety nor those represented by A. lucidum and A 

 adiantoides occur in Mr. Traverses Chathamian collection, nor are 

 they known to exist in Australia or Tasmania. A adiantoides, ac- 

 cording to notes by Dr. Haast, grows from the fissures of mountain- 

 rocks, and thus its locality may account for the remarkable aberration 

 of the form and size of its pinnules. Middle forms between it and 

 A. obtusatum are preserved in our collection. Clear transits firom 

 A. lucidum to A. obtusatum have also been observed, whilst a form 

 with pinnatifid pinnse, brought by Dr. Haast from the limestone- 

 rocks of the coast between the BuUer- and Grey-Eiver, approaches 

 to certain less divided states of A. bulbiferum. 



If in reality specific differences exist between any of the plants 

 here referred to A. marinum, such must emanate in characters 

 different from any of those hitherto pointed out. The reason of the 

 greater variability of this fern in New Zealand than even in Aus- 

 tralia must be sought in climatical and geological conditions. 



Some specimina of A. marinum, collected by Sieber in Corsica 

 and others gathered in Spain by Prof. Lange, approach so near to 



