PROCEEDINGS. 81 



Description of two Filmy Ferns exhibited by C. Moore, f.l.s., 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, June 4, 1890. — The 

 genus Hymenophyllum is one of the most interesting of ferns, 

 from the extreme delicacy of texture, and the minute size of 

 several species, in the latter case these might readily be passed 

 over by those unacquainted with their forms although looking 

 for them. Both of the species which I have now to bring under 

 your notice, are of the smallest kinds, and appear in their natural 

 habitat more resembling a moss than that of a plant of a higher 

 organization, and both are I believe new to these colonies, and 

 undescribed species. One of these was first brought to my notice 

 by my friend W. H. Catlett Esq., who discovered it about ten 

 years ago growing on wet ledges of earth near the top of the 

 Broker's Nose, in the Illawarra Range, but not in fruitification, 

 and could not then be determined. Since that time I have dis- 

 covered it in fruit, on wet rocks near the top of the pass leading 

 from Kiama to Moss Vale, and have therefore been enabled to 

 describe it under the name of H. Catletti, in honour of its discoverer, 

 a most enthusiastic lover of botany and horticulture. In its wild 

 state it grows in dense caespitose masses, of a very dark green 

 colour. The other plant was found by me in company with the 

 former which it is unlike both as regards colour and form, near the 

 top of Kiama Pass, growing on the sides of very w 7 et rocks. The 

 fronds or leaves of this plant are of a pale green colour and quite 

 lucid, in this last respect it appears very similar to an allied 

 species described in Brown's Prodromus under the name of Hymeno- 

 phyllum nitans, from which it is to be distinguished by its smaller 

 size, more regular and fragile form ; this I have ventured to 

 describe under the name of Hymenophyllum lucidum. The 

 botanic definitions of these two plants are as follows : — 



Hymenophyllum Catletti, Moore. — Fronds distinctly flabellate 

 in form, scarcely more than half an inch in length or breadth, 

 segments radiating from a filiform or hair-like stipes about an 

 inch long bifurcating into obtuse lobes. Sori slightly within the 

 apex of the lobe. Involucre widening from the base upwards, 

 crenated at the margin, receptacle slightly protruding. The lobes 

 and stipes often margined with scattered brown hairs. 



Hymenophyllum lucidum, Moore. — Fronds from one to three 

 inches long on a slightly shorter filiform stipes, very pale shining 

 green, linear lanceolate in form pinnate or deeply pinnatifid, 

 segments quite entire unequal linear and obtuse. Sori terminal. 

 Involucre cup-shaped immersed in the substance of the lobe at its 

 apex. Habitat on wet rocks in shady places on the side of the 

 pass above Kiama. 



Mr. H. C. Russell, b.a., f.r.s., exhibited the Narraburra Meteor 

 and described it as follows : — The Narraburra Meteor was found 



F— June 4, 1890. 



