68 



here included. By the dense appressed vestitnre of small or minute 

 pale scales which clothes the petiole rachis and ribs, quite concealing 

 the surface, and shaggy dark-coloured coating of the root-stock in 

 which the scales are 1 in. long and less than a line wide, it may be re- 

 cognised at sight. 



17. N.firmwn, Baker. — Rootstock free- creeping, hardly thicker than 

 a quill, thickly beset with the bases of former stipites, the advancing 

 part densely clothed with narrow bark-brown scales ; stipites scattered 

 but contiguous, erect, 8-12 in. 1. with a few deciduous scales at the 

 base, brownish, glossy, channelled ; fronds lanceolate, or ovate-lanceo- 

 late, 9-12 in. 1. 4-6 in. w., very little narrowed at the base ; naked, 

 dark-green above and glossy, underside paler ; coriaceous ; rachis and 

 costse brownish, glossy, puberulous above, the latter rather wavy ; pin- 

 nae sessile, spreading nearly horizontally, subdistant below, the rather 

 shorter based ones often deflexed, 2J-3J in. 1. J-f in. w., acuminate, 

 deeply pinnatifid, or fully pinnate at the very base : segments close, \-\ 

 in. 1. 1-1 2 li- w., oblong bluntish, the barely crenulate edge slightly re- 

 flexed ; veins very oblique, simple or forked, pellucid, raised above, sori 

 small, dorsal, near the margin ; involucres small, fugacious ; sporangia 

 ciliate. Joum. Bot. 1879, 260. 



^Common on the slopes of Blue Mountain Peak at 7,000 ft., altitude. 

 Well distinguished by its free-creeping slender rhizome, stiff hard 

 texture, and ciliate capsules. Most of the fronds are barren, so that 

 the plants, growing among the undergrowth and brush-wood of the 

 forest, resemble young tree-ferns. It is a much more coriaceous plant 

 than conterminum or its allies, which have erect rootstocks, and the 

 fronds are less reduced at the. base. The stipites run in the direction of 

 the rootstock at the bottom, and then curve upwards. — Endemic. 



18. N, crenulceum, J enm. — Stipites tufted, slender, erect, channelled, 

 dark at the base with a few small deciduous brown scales and distant 

 slight warts, upwards brownish or dark stramineous and naked ; fronds 

 ovate or oblong-lanceolate, 9-12 in. 1. 4-5 in. w. erect, bipinnatifid, 

 narrowed somewhat at the base, the apex pinnatifid passing to the ser- 

 rulate acuminate point, membranous and pellucid, dark green, glabrous 

 beneath, slightly ciliate above, especially on the ribs ; rachis very slen- 

 der, coloured like the stipites, channelled, glabrous or slightly ciliate 

 and rather glossy ; pinnae spreading, lax, their own width or more be- 

 tween them, the inferior subdistant or distant, 2-2 J in. 1. or over, 

 J— £ in. w. the lowest pair half as long, sessile, the inferior ones 

 hardly so, and somewhat narrowed at the base, those above slight- 

 ly enlarged or not there, and of a uniform width outwards, nar- 

 rowing thence to the acuminate serrate entire sharp point; deep- 

 ly cut into oblong, blunt distinctly crenulate segments, which are 

 1 J— 1 J li. w. 2-2 J li. deep, with a close or rather open sinus between to 

 which the marginal crenatures nearly reach ; veins simple, 5-6 to a 

 side, one of the lowest opposite pair entering the sinus, the other above 

 it ; sori intramarginal, involucres cordate, rather ciliate. 



2,000-3,000 ft. altitude. A very delicate plant both in substance 

 and framework, with few open curved veins, that are conspicuous in 

 the thin pellucid parenchyma, and rather thickened at the end, the 

 outer ones especially excurrent, thus forming the crenatures of the 

 margin. The slender habit, thin dark substance in which the veins are 

 conspicuous, and crenate margins distinguish it at a glance. — Endemic. 



