314 
XII. GRAMINEJ3. 
[Gymnostickum. 
Eragrostis eximia, Steud. 1. c. 279, a New Holland tropical grass, allied to Poa, but 
with 6-12 flowering glumes; has never, that I am aware of, been found in New Zealand. 
Stenostachys narduroides, Turcz. in Bull. Soc. Nat. Hist. Mosc. 35. t. ii. 331. As with 
Stap/iylorhodos (p. 57), so with this, all I cau say is, that I know of no plant like it in 
New Zealand, nor does any such occur in Sir E. Home’s original collections in the British 
Museum. Can it be Triticum badly described ? 
Class III. CRYPTOGAMXA. 
Order I. FILICES. 
Herbs, rarely half-shrubby or arboreous plants, with fibrous roots, or most 
frequently with a perennial rhizome. — Rhizome short, stout, either forming an 
erect woody trunk, or prostrate, or slender and climbing, or creeping. Branches 
{fronds), tufted at the end of the rhizome or alternate upon it, continuous 
with it or jointed on to it, simple or more often piunatifidly pinnately 
or 2- or 3-pinnately divided, the lower stalk-like portion ( stipes ) usually 
grooved on the upper side, as is its continuation ( rachis ) ; the fronds are 
sometimes of two kinds, barren and fertile ( Lomaria , Niphobolus, etc.), at 
others the fertile portion of the frond is very distinct from the rest ( Opliio - 
glossum, Botrychium, Osmunda). Fructification consisting of microscopic 
spoi-es, contained in minute capsules of various forms, usually placed on the 
under surface of the frond, but sometimes arranged in spikes or panicles. 
Capsules in most of the genera very minute, membranous, collected into 
brown masses (sori), often mixed with jointed hairs or imperfect club-shaped 
capsules, bursting by a transverse or longitudinal fissure; in a few genera at 
the end of the Order the capsules are much larger, coriaceous, either connate 
into 2-valved masses which open by pores ( Marattia ), or into a long spike 
( Ophioglossum), or are sessile and free on the branches of a panicle ( Botrychium ). 
Sori of various forms, globose oblong or linear; at the back or edge of the 
frond ; on the tips or middle of the veins ; naked or covered by the recurved 
edge of the frond, or by a special involucre (also called indusium ) ; sessile or 
on a short or long, sometimes filiform ( Trichomanes ) receptacle. Involucre 
formed of the recurved edge of the frond, or of a scale attached by its centre 
base or sides to the side or centre of the sorus, membranous or coriaceous, 
simple or double, sometimes 2-lipped or 2-valved, one lip being the recurved 
edge of the frond. Spores usually obtusely 3-gonous, smooth or granular. 
A very large, difficult, polymorphous and variable Order of plants, found in almost all 
quarters of the globe, but most abundant and beautiful in damp southern, tropical and tem- 
perate insular localities, where also the species attain their greatest size. To the above cha- 
racters of the Order may be added, that the fronds of almost all are circinate or coiled in- 
wards like the top of crozier when young ; but this character does not hold good in the tribe 
Ophioglossea. Its mode of propagation is very curious ; the microscopic spore (contained 
in the minute capsule), when it falls in a suitably damp place, bursts, and produces from its 
contents a minute, flat, green, membranous, cellular scale (proth allium) on the under-surface of 
which two kinds of organs appear, male and female. The male ( antlieridia ) consist of cells 
