In the "Synopsis Filicum" A. lucidum, together with A. obliquum, is reduced to the position of a variety of A. obtusatum. This view has since been accepted by most pteridologists, mainly, I presume, on account of the undoubted fact that the three plants are more or less connected by transitional forms. But var. scleropritum also connects A. lucidum with A. flaccidum, while var. Lyallii offers a passage to A. bulbiferum, so that by parity of reasoning these two species should be included. This reduction was actually proposed by the late Baron Mueller in his Chatham Islands Florula (p. 66), but has found no followers. As arbitrary distinctions must in any case be employed, and as the differences between the typical A. lucidum and A. obtusatum are quite as well marked as those between several species of Asplenium universally admitted, I have retained both species in this work. A. obliquum has generally been placed with A. obtusatum, but its position is really a matter of taste, and to me it seems to fall more naturally under A. lucidum.
In addition to New Zealand, A. lucidum is found in Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Australia, and some of the Polynesian islands.7. A. Hookerianum, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 9.—Rhizome short, stout, rounded, emitting numerous fibrous roots, clothed at the top with subulate-lanceolate brownish scales. Stipes 1–4 in. long or more, greenish or greenish-grey, more or less clothed with deciduous scales, becoming almost glabrous when old. Fronds tufted at the top of the rhizome, spreading, 2–10 in. long without the stipes, 1–4 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate to broadly ovate or ovate-deltoid, acuminate, dark-green, herbaceous or almost membranous, pinnate or bipinnate; rhachis and under-surface more or less scaly. Pinnæ 4–12 pairs, the largest 1–3 in. long, distinctly stipitate, pinnate, or in small specimens pinnatifid or deeply lobed. Pinnules rather remote, on long slender petioles, usually rounded or rhomboid with a cuneate base, more rarely narrower and cuneate-oblong, irregularly toothed or lobed or even pinnatifid, rarely again pinnate. Veins subflabellate, forked. Sori 2–5 on a pinnule, short, oblong, remote from the margin.—Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 194; Moore, Ind. Fil. 136; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 372; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 213; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 747; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 75; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 120, t. 16, f. 4a. A. adiantoides, Raoul, Choix, 10, t. 1. (not of Raddi). A. adiantoides var. minus. Hook. f. Ic. Plant. t. 983. A. adiantoides var. Hookerianum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 35. A. Raoulii var. minus, Mett. Aspl. 118. A. ornatum. Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 452.
Var. Colensoi, Moore, Ind. Fil. 137.—Fronds pale-green, usually flaccid. Pinnules on shorter stalks, deeply and finely pinnatifid; segments linear, each with a single vein. Sori oblong, solitary on the margin of the segments.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. .373; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 75; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 120, t. 27, f. 1. A. Colensoi, Hook. f. in Land. Journ. Bot. iii. (1844) 26; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 219. A. adiantoides var. Colensoi, Hook. f. Ic. Plant. t. 984; Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 35. A. Richardi var. Colensoi, Hook. Sp. Fil. iii. 197.
North and South Islands: From Mongonui and Kaitaia to the south of Otago, but often local. Sea-level to 2500 ft.
