69 



Mr. Travers's plant represents the normal form. 



Some varieties of this fern, as indicated by Dr. Hooker, bear 

 great resemblance to the exindusiate form of Nephrodium veluti- 

 num, others to Hypolepis tenuifolia. 



POLYPODTOM SCANDENS. 

 Forst. Prodr. 437 ; Schkuhr, Farrnkr. 11, t. 8 ; Swartz, Syn. FO. 131 & 228 ; 

 Willd. Spec. Plant, v. 166 ; P. pustulatum, Forst. Prodr. 436 ; Schk. 

 Farrnkr. 11, 1. 10 ; Bernhardi in Eoonig & Sims's Annal. 1. 1, fig. 6 ; Met- 

 ten. Polypod. p. 101 ; Hook. Spec. Filio. t. 80.; P. membranifolium, E. Br. 

 Prodr. 147 ; P. phymatodes, Eioli. Voy. de rAstrol. 64 ; Phymatodes pus- 

 tulata, Presl, Tentamen Pteridograph. 196 ; J. Hook. Flor. Nov. Zeel. ii. 

 42 ; Drynaria pustvdata, J. Smith, accord, to Hook. 1. c. 



Common in woods of Chatham-Island. To be found also in 

 New Zealand and widely through tropical and extratropical East 

 Australia. 



Varietas Billardierii. 

 Polypodium scandens, LabiU. Nov. HoU. Plant. Specim. ii. 91, t. 240 ; P. 

 diversifolium, Willd. Spec. Plant, v. 166 ; P. Billardierii, E. Br. Prodr. 

 147 ; Metten. Polypod. 101 ; Bndl. Prodr. Flor. Insul. Norfolk. 7 ; Hook. 

 Spec. FUic. V. 147; Phymatodes Billardierii, Presl, Tentam. Pteridogr. 196 ; 

 J. Hook. Flor. Antarct. i. Ill ; Flor. Nov. Zeel. ii. 42 ; Flor. Tasm. ii. 

 150 ; Drynaria BiUardierii, J. Smith. 



Common everywhere in the Chatham-Islands, also in New Zea- 

 land, Tasmania, and in Australia from the southern part of Queens- 

 land through New South Wales and the colony of Victoria to the 

 eastern part of South Australia. 



The author is unable to concede specific value to the differences 

 hitherto drawn between the two plants here recorded. It requires 

 even stUl further investigations, whether reliable characters exist 

 between P. scandens and P. phymatodes, plants perhaps rightly 

 united by Achilles Eichard. Several other described' Polypodia 

 seem referable to our plant. ' 



The identification of Forster's P. scandens from the Pacific 

 islands with P. pustulatum rests on the authority of Mettenius. The 

 name of the Society-Island's plant has been chosen in preference to 

 that simultaneously bestowed on the New Zealand plant, being 

 exquisitely appropriate. 



Nephrodium decompositum. 



E. Brown, Prodr. Flor. Nov. HoU. 149 ; J. Hook. Flor. Nov. Zeel. ii. 39, t. 79 ; 

 Fl. Tasm. i. 149 ; Hook. Spec. Filic. iv. 146 ; N. microsorum, Endl. Prodr. 



