3. A. Richardi, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 23, t. 222.—Rhizome short, thick, densely clothed with linear-subulate dark-brown or blackish scales. Stipes 6–18 in. long, stout, erect, more or less clothed with rigid black subulate deciduous scales mixed with woolly hairs. Fronds few, tufted at the top of the rhizome, 9–18 in. long or more without the stipes, 3–9 in. broad, ovate-deltoid to lanceolate-deltoid, acuminate, not narrowed at the base, rigid and coriaceous, glabrous above, more or less woolly or furfuraceous beneath, pinnate or 2-pinnate; rhachis often scaly and woolly like the stipes, but usually less conspicuously so. Pinnæ numerous, usually close and compact, but sometimes a little remote, spreading, ½–4 in. long, ¾–1½ in. broad, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid or again pinnate. Pinnules numerous, close, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, acute or mucronate or pungent, usually more or less acutely serrate, but sometimes the teeth are obtuse or very obscure. Sori in two rows in each pinnule, about half-way between the midrib and the margin. Indusium orbicular, fiat, with a rather large dark disc and pale margin.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 375; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 253; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 79; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 128, t. 13, f. 4. A. coriaceum var. acutidentatum, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 71. Polystichum aristatum. Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 37, t. 78 (not of Presl.). Polystichum Richardi, Diels.
North and South Islands: From the North Cape to the south of Otago, not uncommon in lowland districts, especially near the sea.
Also in Fiji. A variable plant, especially in the extent to which the pinnæ are divided, and in the shape and toothing of the pinnules.
4. A. oculatum, Hook. Sp. Fil. iv. 24, t. 228.—"Rhizome absent. Fronds 10–20 in. long, coriaceous, ovate-oblong, acuminate, 3-pinnate, pale and clothed with woolly hairs below; stipes stout, straw-coloured, covered with rigid, large, subulate, brown scales margined with white; rhachis with fewer softer scales and lax woolly hairs; primary divisions of the frond 2–4 in. long, narrow ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, stalked, not close together; secondary also lax, ⅔–1 in. long, sessile or stalked; pinnules alternate, sessile, decurrent, ¼ in. long, obtuse or mucronate, obtusely toothed or subpinnatifid. Sori abundant over the whole under-surface. 2–4 on each segment; involucre orbicular, shortly stalked, with a large black disc and narrow reddish margin."—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 376>; Hook, and Bak. Syn. Fil. 253; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 79; Field, N.Z., Ferns, 129.
North and South Islands: "Wairarapa Valley, Colenso; Akaroa, Raoul" (Handbook).
I have not identified this with certainty, and have consequently reproduced the description given in the Handbook. It is probably nothing more than a trivial variety of A. Richardi with a rather laxer frond than usual, and smaller and shorter pinnules with more obtuse teeth. Mr. Baker keeps it as a distinct species in the "Synopsis Filicum," but in the "Annals of Botany" (Vol. v., 314) he remarks that it is evidently a mere variety of A. Richardi.
