270 
New Zealand Ferns 
fence; yet it was this to which I was irresistibly drawn, 
and over which 1 had to climb. 
Under some trees 1 saw plenty of Doodia media and 
some Adiantums, but no D. caudata, the fern for which 
I was looking. I also noticed several small pointed 
fronds of what I took to be Hy pole pis, and I looked out 
for a full-grown specimen, but there was none. After 
traversing the patch of bush twice, I turned to retrace 
my steps, concluding that I had been an ass to put such 
a formidable fence between me and the road. Some- 
thing unusual about the outline drew my eyes again to 
the young pointed fronds growing on the side of a little 
bank. Mechanically I stooped down and turned up the 
back of a frond — ASPLENIUM!!! Without a doubt, 
there were the little herringbone lines of seed — JAPON- 
ICUM!!! Yes, it must be, though it had never been re- 
ported from Whangarei. 
Wonderful luck. Within half an hour of reaching 
Whangarei I had found a fern that I had not seen dur- 
ing my 40 years’ collecting— what collectors call “be- 
ginner’s luck.’’ Digging up a root or two for my fernery 
in Auckland, I packed them carefully in my kit and re- 
turned to the hotel with my wits remarkably on the 
alert. I was so bursting with exultation that I had to 
tell the first person I met — a commercial traveller — my 
excitement being such that it stirred even his mercenary 
soul. Since this was written it has been reported from 
south-west of Taupo and Nelson.” 
This is a wide-spread species, ranging through Poly- 
nesia, Malay Archipelago, India, China, and Japan. 
