2X8 FILICES. 



Pteris esculenta, Forst. ex Willd. Spec. PI. 5, p. 401 ; K. Br. Prodr. PL Nov. Holl. 

 p. 154; Agardh, Gen. Pterid. p. 45. 



Hab. Hills around the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Hunter's 

 River and Port Jackson, New South Wales. Feejee Islands. 



Stipes angular and somewhat channeled in front. Fronds rigid, 

 spreading and tripinnate. Both the pinna? and pinnules are triangular- 

 oolong, and pinnatisect. The segments are linear, with an obtuse point, 

 and distant, decurrent on the rhachis, with an intermediate lobule, the 

 margin reflected and crenate, the under surface furnished with a short 

 pubescence, the terminal segment considerably the longest; the sinus 

 triangular. Rhachis and costa quite smooth, nodose and articulated at 

 base. Indusium smooth, membranaceous, somewhat replicate. 



In this species a very considerable difference occurs in the length of 

 the segments and their relative proximity to each other, in specimens 

 from the three countries named. In our New Zealand plant the 

 segments are usually somewhat over an inch in length, and from 3 to 

 6 lines apart; while the Australian form holds an intermediate position, 

 in this particular, between the former and the Feejee plant; the latter 

 agreeing with Agardh's description. In all, the decurrent crescent- 

 shaped lobule between the segments is present, and the dark brown, 

 nodose, apparent articulations at the junction of the rhachis and costa 

 with each other. 



By some oversight in collecting, our specimens from New Zealand 

 are not a fair sample of this most common of all Ferns in that 

 country, where its underground rhizoma, even now, but in a less 

 degree than when Captain Cook visited these islands, is used by the 

 natives as an article of food. 



18. Pteris arachnoidea, Kaulf. 



Pteris arachnoidea, Kaulf. Enura. Fil. p. 190 ; Agardh, Gen. Pterid. p. 46. 



Hab. Organ Mountains, and vicinity of Rio Janeiro, Brazil. 



We can perceive no essential difference between this and P. escu~ 

 lenta of Forster, save in its more divaricate pinnae and their broader 

 segments. 



