and one form can be traced directly into the other. I have kept up the four varieties established by Sir J. D. Hooker in the Flora, although the first three do not seem to be separated by any well-defined characters. Var. minor is more distinct; and in some respects approaches L. vulcanica. It has a different habit and mode of growth, and may prove to be a separate species.
In nearly all the species of Lomaria the fertile fronds are sometimes irregularly mixed with sterile pinnæ, but in none is this so commonly seen as in L. capensis. Sometimes one side of the frond may be fertile and the opposite side sterile, or the sterile and fertile pinnæ may be irregularly mixed. Or sometimes the upper half of the frond may be fertile and the lower sterile, or vice versa. It is also quite common for the pinnæ themselves to be partly fertile and partly sterile. The frond is also occasionally once or twice dichotomously forked, constituting Mr. Potts's L. duplicata, and sometimes the tips of the fronds are regularly crested.
10. L. filiformis, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 183.—Rhizome long, stout, branched, climbing up trees to a great height, clothed with squarrose scales. Sterile fronds very numerous, scattered along the rhizome, pinnate throughout, of two forms; those on the ground or on the lower part of the rhizome small, 3–6 in. long, ½–1 in. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate; pinnæ ¼–½ in. long, oblong to orbicular-oblong, sharply and deeply toothed. Fronds from the upper part of the rhizome much larger, 1–2½ ft. long, 3–6 in. broad, lanceolate, pendulous, hardly coriaceous, dark-green, glabrous or more or less scaly along the rhachis and costæ; stipes short, scaly at the base. Pinnæ numerous, 1½–4 in. long, about ½ in. broad, lanceolate, falcate, narrowed upwards into a finely acuminate point, shortly stipitate and truncate or rounded or cordate at the base, margins regularly and finely crenate-dentate. Fertile fronds from near the top of the rhizome, ovate or ovate-oblong in outline; pinnæ numerous, 3–6 in. long, ⅛ in. broad, very narrow-linear or almost filiform. Indusium very narrow.—Raoul, Choix, 37; Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 33, t. 149; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 366; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 180; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 68; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 109, t. 10, f. 3, 3a, 3b. L. propinqua, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 184. L. pimpinellifolia. Hook. f. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. (1844) 412. Stenochlæna heteromorpha, J. Sm. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iv. (1845) 149; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 46; Brack. Fil. U.S. Expl. Exped. 77. Osmunda reptans. Banks and Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 46. Blechnum reptans, Christ.
North and South Islands: In forests from the North Cape southwards to Nelson and Marlborough, abundant. Sea-level to 2000 ft.
Also recorded from the Fiji Islands. A most distinct species, remarkable for its very long climbing rhizome and dimorphic sterile fronds.
11. L. nigra, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 16.—Rhizome short, stout, suberect, clothed with the bases of the old stipites mixed with chaffy scales. Stipes slender, densely scaly. 1–3 in. long. Sterile fronds tufted at the top of the rhizome, spreading, 3–8 in. long, 1–1½ in. broad, linear-oblong, membranous,
