Asplenium. | FILICES. 5] 
Var. tripinnatum Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii (1855) 34.—Fronds ample, tripinnate, 
with narrow pinnules and segments resembling some forms of A. Aaccidum, but more 
compound and texture thinner. Sori marginal on the segments.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 
(1864) 3723; Hook. Sp. Fil. iii (1260) 196. A. tremulum Homb. et Jacq. Voy. au Pole 
Sud (1852) Crypt, t. 2, bis. | 4 
NortH AND Souru Isnanps, CHatHamM Is~tanps, Stewart Is~tanp, ANTIPODES 
Istand: Abundant throughout, especially in damp woods. Sea-level to 3000 ft. 
Moku. 
The typical state of A. bulbiferum is a well-known plant throughout the whole of 
New Zealand, and is at once distinguished from the other species of the genus by the 
ample dark-green bipinnate fronds with comparatively broad pinnules, and especially 
by its habit of producing small bulbils on the upper surface of the frond, which develop 
into young plants while still attached to the frond. When the bulbils are not developed, 
and the frond is more slender, with narrower and more deeply divided pinnules, so that 
the sori are often almost marginal, the plant becomes var. laxum. This runs into several 
small states not clearly separable, one of which is the A. triste of Raoul, and another 
Colenso’s A. gracillimum. Var. tripinnatum has still narrower pinnules, deeply cut 
into narrow-linear segments, and the sori are quite marginal. It approaches very close 
to some states of A. flaccidum, but the frond is broader and more decompound, and the 
texture is thinner. In addition to the above varieties there are a large number of puzzling 
forms, which apparently connect the species with A. falcatum, A. lucidum var. Lyallii, 
A. scleroprium, A. Hookerianum, A. Richardi, and A. flaccidum. In Stewart Island, 
passage forms into A. scleroprium and A. flaccidum are particularly abundant, and it 
is often difficult to decide to which species they should be referred. It would occupy 
many pages to characterize these, and I doubt whether it is possible to define them in 
language sufficiently precise to enable them to he recognized with certainty. 
A. bulbiferum in some of its forms is also found in Australia and Tasmania, many 
of the Pacific islands, Malaya, and North India. 
ll. A. Riehardi Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii (1855) 35.—Rhizome short, 
stout, usually forming a rounded knot-like caudex, clothed at the top with 
dark-brown subulate scales. Stipes tufted at the top of the rhizome, 2-6 in. 
long, stout, rigid, erect, greenish, usually clothed with linear scales, rarely 
almost glabrous. Fronds 3-9in. long without the stipes, 1-4 in. broad, 
ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, dark-green, varying from almost 
membranous to coriaceous, somewhat rigid, 2-3-pinnate; rhachis smooth 
or bristly. Primary pinnae 8-12 pairs, rather close, stipitate, }-2 in. long, 
ovate-lanceolate to ovate; secondary crowded, often overlapping, ovate- 
rhomboid, pinnatifid or again pinnate. Ultimate segments ;4-} in. long, 
narrow-linear, obtuse or acute or mucronate, each with a single vein. Sori 
short, broad, oblong, on the margins of the segments.——Handb. N.Z. Fl. 
(1864) 373; Hook. Sp. Fil. 1 (1860) 197, excl. var. Colensoi; Hook. and 
Bak. Syn. Fil. (1873) 222; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 76; Field N.Z. Ferns 
(1890) 124, t. 28, f.5; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 994. <A. adiantoides 
var. Richardi Hook. f. Ic. Plant. t. 977. A. Raoulu var. Richardi Mett. 
Aspl. (1859) 118. A. symmetricum Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi (1899) 
254. 
NortH Istanp: Slopes of Ruapehu, W. Townson! Tararua Range, Buchanen, 
H. C. Field. Sovura Istanp: Not uncommon in hilly and mountainous districts 
throughout. Sea-level to 4000 ft. 
A very puzzling plant. Small states with membranous fronds appear to pass 
directly into A. Hookerianum var. Colensoi, while larger and more coriaceous forms 
only differ from erect states of A. flaccidum in the more finely cut fronds and smaller 
segments. 
12. A. flaeeidum Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) n. 426.—Rhizome short, stout, 
erect, clothed at the top with copious dark-brown subulate-lanceolate 
scales. Stipites tufted at the top of the rhizome, usually rather short, 
