TAB. LX. 
Lomaria nigra, Col. 
Parvula luride viridis, frondibus sterilibus linearibus sublyrato- 
pinnatifidis, lobis (inferioribus nunc discretis) oblongis 
obtusis sinuato-crenatis glaberrimis infimis marginibus 
costis rariusque paginis inferioribus tomentosis, terminali 
maxima basi lobata, fertilibus pinnatis, pinnis paucis 
distantibus suberectis anguste linearibus apice subulatis 
acuminatis v. apiculatis, terminali elongata, rachi parce 
stipitibusque sparse paleaceis. 
Lomaria nigra, Colenso in Tasm. Phil. Journ. 
Hab. New Zealand, dense forests between Tauranga and 
Roturua, East Coast: Rev. W. Colenso , n. 299. 331. 
This is a very anomalous plant, and has rather an unnatural 
appearance, the fronds being blackish or lurid, brittle when 
dry, the pinnules often erose, sinuate and irregular in size 
and outline ; as if it had grown in an ungenial locality. Mr. 
Colenso’s specimens are good ones, however, and uniformly 
display the peculiar characters which separate it from its 
allies. In habit, general appearance, paleaceous rachis, and 
other points, it clearly resembles L. jluviatilis , Br, Prod. (L. 
rotundifolia, Raoul ,) a denizen of similar localities ; in its 
typical state that plant has pinnate barren fronds, with the 
lower pinnules stipitate, (a tendency to which may be seen 
in the lower pinnae of our plate of L. nigra), the terminal one 
does not run out into a long lobe, and the fertile pinnules are 
shorter and blunter. To the infinitely variable L. lanceolata 
again (Hook. leones 429) the L. nigra is allied by the pinnatifid 
fronds, and narrow fertile pinnae with subulate tips. The 
pubescence consists, in the dried state, of a short rufous 
tomentum, sometimes spread over the under surface of the 
pinnae, at others confined to the margins and costae, and some- 
times it is wholly absent. — J.D.H. 
Fig. 1 . Pubescent pinna, f 2. Fertile pinna, f. 3. 
Transverse section of the same, with the involucres reflexed 
showing the sori : — all magnified. 
