New Zealand Ferns. 
375 
thickly matted scrub, undergoing the greatest mental and 
bodily sufferings, without food, and nearly without 
clothes. Their perseverance at length carried them 
through their miseries; and at midnight on the 25th 
they reached Cape Grim, where they were kindly 
treated by the officers of the establishment. 
The final evacuation of Macquarie Harbour was there¬ 
fore most disastrous, not only to the government, but to 
the unfortunate individuals who lost every thing they had. 
Of the course of the vessel after she left Macquarie 
Harbour little is known; several of the runaways were 
taken in South America. Four of them, Shires, Lyon, 
Porter, and Cheshire, were sent back to the Colony, and 
on the 26th April, 1837, were tried and found guilty of 
the offence. 
A narrative of their proceedings, given by one of these 
men, has since appeared in Ross’s Van Diemen’s Land 
Annual for 1838. 
Art. IV. Description of some new Ferns lately discovered 
in New Zealand . By W. Colenso, Esq. 
Genus , LOMARIA. Willd . 
Gen. Ciiar. Sori lineares continui dorsum frondis con¬ 
tracts tegentes. Indusia marginalia conniventia. Spreng . 
1. Lomaria nigra. Plant , low, prostrate and spread¬ 
ing ; colour , dark green approaching to black. Fronds , 
ovate-lanceolate, pinnate; 6—8inches long, 1—1J inches 
broad. Sterile frond ; pinnules , alternate, sessile, ovate- 
ligulate, broadest at base, very irregularly toothed and 
jagged, revolute, veined, blistered, and roughish; J—£ 
inch long, \—J inch broad; two next to lowest the 
smallest; terminal lobe 1—2 inches long: midrib , to- 
mentose, 5—6J inches; stipe, channelled, hairy ; 1J— 
