40 
New Zealand Ferns 
( 8 ) H. demissum (drooping). “Piri-piri.” This spe- 
cies grows more stiffly and more upright than the other 
large members of the genus ; it is also a good deal more 
finely cut than H. dilatatum, the final divisions of the 
leaf measuring only i-20th inch in width. In lowland 
districts it is the most abundant of the species, often 
carpeting large areas of the forest floor. 
Description . — Root long, wiry, creeping. Stalks 2 to 6 inches 
long, smooth, wiry, not winged. Fronds erect or curved, mem- 
branous, bright pale-green, 4 to 16 inches long, including the 
stalk, by 2 to 5 inches broad. Seeds small, very numerous, at the 
tips of the leaflets. 
Abundant in woods throughout the Dominion. Sea-level to 
3.000 feet. 
When the sun shines on this beautiful fern after a 
shower, the light glances from its crowded seeds as from 
a hundred emeralds. Of the filmy ferns it is one of the 
easiest to grow under glass. In her “British Ferns” Miss 
Pules includes it in her list of the most attractive green- 
house ferns — “Pendant filmy fern. This is the New 
Zealand brother of our minute native hymenophyllum, 
and may be considered by them as a veritable giant, for 
the fronds exceed a foot in length !” What would she 
have said to H. dilatatum, which often attains a length 
of 2 feet 6 inches? 
It is found also in Polynesia, Java, and the Philippine 
Islands. 
