196 
New Zealand Ferns 
( 76 ) L. capensis (native of the Cape). “Kio-kio.” A 
species which rivals the tree-fern in dominating the land- 
scape ; often completely clothing the hanks of streams or 
the sides of roads with dense masses of great sweeping 
fronds that rattle in the breeze. Very variable in size, 
ranging from a half-starved leaf a few inches long 
growing in a rocky cleft, to great curved fronds 10 feet 
long, each bearing more than 40 pairs of leaflets. 
Description . — Roots short, stout, often woody, erect or in- 
clined, sometimes prostrate, clothed at the top with large chest- 
nut brown scales. Stalks stout, long or short, usually densely 
scaly at the base. Fronds numerous, very variable in size, usually 
from 1 to 4 feet long, but in dry, exposed places often dwarfed 
to a few inches, while on the sides of deep wooded ravines they 
occasionally extend to 10 feet or even more, very stiff and rigid, 
or almost membranous, bright-green or brown-green, sometimes 
chequered with both colours, 6 to 24 inches broad. Leaflets of 
fertile fronds very narrow. Fertile and barren leaflets often 
mixed on the same stalk. Seeds copious, covering the under side. 
Most abundant throughout the Dominion. Sea-level to 4,000 
feet. 
Even more ubiquitous than the bracken, which shuns 
swamps and the deep shady forest ; it grows everywhere, 
no soil or situation seeming to come amiss — on open 
downs, dry hill-sides and ridges, the clefts of rocky 
peaks, on dripping cliffs in deep ravines beside water- 
falls, in wet swamps, on banks overlooking the sea. 
In making my way up a narrow gully it has sometimes 
been necessary to leave the bed of the stream to avoid 
deep pools and clamber along the steep banks. Should 
these be clothed with L. capensis I know of no tougher 
battle than to struggle through the tangled fronds ; they 
are too close to creep beneath, while to trample under 
foot the palm-like leaves that rise high above one’s head 
is a herculean task. 
The barren fronds are strikingly handsome, the shin- 
ing leaves serrated finely along the margins, the undu- 
lating surface catching the light at different angles and 
giving the fronds a singularly glistening appearance. 
