146 
New Zealand Ferns 
( 55 ) H. millefolium (thousand-leaved). One of the 
most finely and openly cut of the New Zealand ferns. 
A mountain species, confined in the North Island to the 
high ranges of the interior. Wide-spread in the South 
Island, frequenting open, hilly ground. 
Description . — Root long, slender, creeping, naked or nearly 
so. Stalks 3 to 9 inches long, rigid, erect, yellowish-brown, glossy, 
smooth, or slightly rough. Fronds 6 to 18 inches long by 3 to 9 
inches broad, pale-green, firm. Midribs clothed with scattered 
hairs. Seeds numerous, placed in the notches of the leaflets. 
North Island : East Cape, Ruapehu, Mount Egmont, Ruahine 
Mountains, Manawatu Gorge, Tararua Ranges. South Island: 
Not uncommon in mountain districts throughout. Usually 1,500 
to 4,000 feet, but descends almost to sea-level in South Otago. 
When growing in shade this fern has a beautiful, 
lace-like texture. I first gathered it at Picton in 1878. 
Setting out at dawn with the determination of scaling 
the highest peak — Piri-piri, 3,200 feet — I plunged into 
the narrow gorge above the railway viaduct. There was 
absolutely no track of any kind, and the bush was so 
dense, even on the summits of the mountains, that I had 
recourse to breaking off twigs of the Panax to mark my 
path for the return journey. There is no difficulty in 
finding one’s way to the top of a bush-clad mountain, 
but it is not so easy to keep to the main ridge coming 
down, and a side spur would have landed me at the 
bottom of a rocky gorge where progress was well nigh 
impossible. 
After a struggle of seven hours, which had yielded 
nothing new in the way of ferns, I came within sight of 
the summit, so crowded with gnarled birch trees, from 
which hung: great festoons of moss and lichen as to rob 
