18 Classification and Description 
and scales ; 11*— 14 inches long ; colour, light yellow : scales , 
crowded and sub-fascicled, shining, brown. Moot , fibrous. 
Hah. In hilly situations, dry woods, in Te Waiiti district, 
in nearly the same locality as the preceding ; January, 1842. 
21. L. deflex A, n. sp. Plant y small, solitary, abruptly 
defiexed, glabrous, terrestrial. Barren frond, pinnate-pin- 
natifid, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, sub-acute, 4 — 7 inches : 
segments, ligulate-Ianceolate, obtuse, somewhat falcate, 
broadest at base, margined, entire, or slightly crenulate, 
veined ; lowermost pinnules, pinnate, opposite, sessile, un- 
equal, broadly cordate at base, auricled upwards and imbri- 
cated ; upper pinnae, pinnatifid, alternate, divided almost to 
rachis ; colour, light red-green : Machis, fiexuose towards 
apex, channelled : Stipe, smooth, hairy towards, and thickly 
scaled at, base, 2 — 4 inches long : veins, pinnate, bifurcate, 
clavate at apices. Fertile frond, pinnate, 3 — 4 inches long : 
pinnules , ligulate, obtuse, falcate, broadest at base, decur- 
rent upwards and downwards, sessile, opposite ; uppermost 
confluent ; terminal lobe caudate: Rachis and Stipe , chan- 
nelled ; Stipe, smooth, hairy, and densely scaled at base ; 
3—4 inches long. Root , fibrous. 
Hah . Dry clayey banks, sides of rivers, country between 
Turanga and the River Wairoa, E. Coast ; December, 1841. 
Ohs. A curious little species, in affinity apparently very 
near X. delioides ; from which, however, it differs, in not 
being ciliated on the margins of its pinnse, in being much 
smaller, in its different venation, and in its very peculiar 
habit of growth, the barren frond being, almost invariably, 
abruptly defiexed (as if broken) from the lowermost pinnules. 
The difference between these two apparently closely-allied 
species, is easier perceived on Comparing them together than 
described. 
On re-examination it has occurred to me, that this species 
may be yet found to have an alliance with the genus Blech- 
num ; as, in some young fronds which I have examined, the, 
