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. lucidum var. scleroprium, A. Hookeranum, A. Richardi, and A. fiaccidum. 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 be recognised with certainty.
A. bulbiferum in some of its forms is also found in Australia and Tasmania, many of the Pacific islands, Malaya, North India, South Africa, Mexico, and Central America.9. A. Richardi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 35.—Rhizome short, stout, usually forming a rounded knot-like caudex, lothed 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 3–9 in. 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 pinnæ 8–12 pairs, rather close, stipitate, ½–2 in. long, ovate-lanceolate to ovate; secondary crowded, often overlapping, ovate-rhomboid, pinnatifid or again pinnate. Ultimate segments 112–⅛ 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. 373; Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 197, excl. var. Colensoi; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 222; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 76; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 124, t. 28, f. 5. A. adiantoides var. Richardi, Hook. f. Ic. Plant. t. 977. A. Raoulii var. Richardi, Metten. Aspl. 118. A. symmetricum. Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 264.
North Island: Tararua Range, Buchanan, H. G. Field. South Island: 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.
10. A. flaccidum, Forst. Prodr. 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, compressed or angled, greenish, scaly at the base, naked above. Fronds very variable in size and shape, 3 in. to 3 ft. long or more, 2–9 in. broad, the long-fronded varieties lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, the shorter ones ovate or broadly ovate, acuminate, thick and coriaceous, flaccid and pendulous or rigid and
