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During the examination of the materials from which the genus Hymenopliylhm was described in the second
part of the “ Species Filicum,” I had but cursorily investigated tlic Auckland Island species, and considered the U.
mhihmm of Richard to be a small variety of II. Tunbridgenee, ivith terminal involucres. This state is not uncommon in
the vicinity of the Bay of Islands, and this I laid before my father ; whence the II. niininium was by liim included as
a synonjun of tliat widely diffused species. Amongst niy specimens of II. multijidum I now find others of this very
minute and most distinct plant, which have enabled me to correct that eiror. In the rigid consistence of the frond, its
decurved habit and linid coloin, it is more neai-ly allied to E . uultifidwni than to any other species, but the cm-iously
spiimlose valves of the involucre afford an excellent specific chai'acter, as do the small size, simple frond and singularly
concave segments, which appear like the half of a tube, that is, hollow throughout theii- length and open at the
end. Between this plant and the TricTiortimies cæspitosum of the Falkland Islands aud Cape Horn, much analogy
exists, especially in size, locality and habit ; in each the fronds are generally once dirtded, nath the segments concave
and obtuse ; both have the indusia free or nearly so, spiuulose at the back of the valves, and though often lateral
in the latter plant, the fructifications are, especially on small specimens, very generally terminal, and may prove to
be tndy lateral in H. -minimum, should that plant be found in a more luxm-iant state than M. Richard’s or my specimens
exhibit. In the ‘ Flora Novoe Zelandiæ ’ M. Richard does not mention the original discoverer of the species ;
the figure in the ‘ Voy. de la Coquille ’ is not characteristic of the curious involucres.
2. H ymenophyllum muWfdum, Sw. Syn. Fil. p. 1 4 9 and 3 7 8 . Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 1 6 5 .
Presl, Hymenqpkyll. p. 3 2 . Hook. Sp. Fil. vol. i. p. 98 .
H a b . Lord Aucldand’s gi'oup aud Campbell’s Is lan d ; in aU. situations, from tlie level of th e sea to the
tops of the mountains, growing on the ground, on tru n k s of trees and on rocks.
A very common New Zealand fera, from the latitude of the Bay of Islands to that of Campbell’s Island j representing
in this region the H. fortuosum of Antarctic America and the H. Tnnhridgense of the Northern Hemisphere.
I t is very vai-iable in size, but the fronds are always remarkably bent downwards, their apices often touching the
gi-ound.
3 . I Iymexophyllum demissum, Sw. Sy?i. F il. p. 14 7 and 3 7 4 . Schkuhr Fil. 1 . 1 3 5 . c. F. R ic k . Fl.
Nov, Zel. p. 9 2 . Hook. Sp. F il. vol. i. p. 1 0 9 . Splizerocionium demissum, Presl, Ilymenophyll. p. 35.
H a b . Lord Auckland’s g ro u p ; in dense '«'oods near th e sea, often covering th e ground -with large
patches of a lurid green colour.
Tlie specimens of this beautiful species are smaller than those collected in the northern island of New Zealand,
but do not otherwise differ.
JL-. P]-esl’s genus Sph(srocionium is apparently founded only upon the foi-ra of the receptacle, in its being
“ shorter than the indusinm, naked and cylindrical below, and thickened and globose at the apex, wliich alone bears
the capsules; ” such characters can hardly be apphed to this species, where the receptacle, though short, produces
capsules for at least two-thirds of its length, the lowest portion or third part only being naked and cyhndrical, gradually
thickening upwards into an elongated club-shaped body.
The stractui-e of the receptacle in most species of the genus Hymenophylkm, in its more extended sense, appears
to me verj' imifonn; in length it varies extremely, but there is generally a short cyhndi-ical body, which may
be considered a pedicellus to the elongated capsuliferous portion or true receptaculum; upon the comparative length
of this latter portion the genus of Presl rests. In some New Zealand specimens of this fern the pedicel is so
short as to be almost obhterated, the receptacle appearing like a stout column covered throughout its length with
capsules; in others the whole organ is reduced to an elevated tubercle in the bottom of the involucre. Of tlie
other plants included by Mr. Presl under this genus I have examined several; of these, S. infortunatum, the only
St. Helena species of this genus, and originally noticed in Pritchard’s list of the plants of that island as Ilym. capillare,
has the receptacle more nearly as described, though I should rather have called it clavate than “ apice globoso-in-
crassatum ” ; the capsules arc not confined to its apex, but extend half way down the receptacle. S. ricciafolium I
have not seen in fru it; it appears, however, identical with H.polyanthos, Sw. (v. Sp. Fil. p. 107.). Whether the
II. polyanthos. Hook, and Grev., be that of Swartz, or, as Presl supposed, another species, is difficidt to decide,
ivlthout authentic specimens of Swartz’s p lan t; it is. however, an excessively common West Indian form, nor does its
receptacle difier in any particular from that of several species of Sphm-ocionium; as from S. sangmnolenttm, Presl,
(certainly a variety of polyanthos. Hook, and Grev., if not of Swartz), from some states of demissum and others.
S. caudicidatum ■. in most of the specimens in Hook. Herb, the short pedicellus is surmounted by a very large depressed
sphere covered with capsides, in some indusia this character is very striking, but in others, from the same specimen,
it becomes considerably smaller, and in what is manifestly the same plant from other localities the receptacle is simply
clavate but very broad. S. dilatatum ; this very common New Zealand plant is properly retained in the immediate
vicinity of demissum; in no case, however, do I find its receptacle to be globose and incrassated at the apex, it is very
like, and varies similarly with, that of the last-named plant. S. crispaticm: the receptacle of Indian specimens quite
agi-ees with Presl’s character, in some Van Diemen’s Land ones that organ is narrower at the summit. S. hadium,
gracile, axillare, and ahietinum have the receptacles very short and clavate, or more or less capitate. I t is not
to be wondered at that an organ so variable in the above-mentioned species should afibrd too frail characters
upon which to found a genus; aud a similar examination of some of the plants included in PresFs IlymenopJiyllum
will show that it exists of all lengths, between the long exserted stout column so often seen in II. multifidim and
secundum aud the short sessile receptacle of demissum and dilatatum; transition stages, connecting the two genera,
are found in both. The limits of Hymenophyllum, as established in the ‘ Species Filicum,’ have been defined after a
study of several thousand specimens; a re-examination of many of which has convinced me that neither can most
of the new genera fonned out of it remain, nor such sections as tbat author has proposed under the names of Evo-
luta and Bimidiata.
Having occasion to describe several species of this genus dming the coiu-sc of publishing the results of the
Antai'ctic Expedition, some apology seems necessary for not adopting Presl’s riews of the Order Ilymenophyl-
lacecB. I am fully sensible of the great value of that author’s labours and of the accuracy and precision with
which he has described what he has examined, as also of his intimate acquaintance with the whole order of F e rn s:
and whdst I cannot but place some reliance upon the results of my own observation of far more extensive suites of
specimens, in many cases gathered by myself, than Presl has probably had access to, I would fru-ther remark,
that whilst examining, in the Hookerian herbarium, almost ah the species mentioned by Presl, and authentically
named specimens of many, I have constantly met vdik abimdant evidence of that writer’s accm-acy in his descriptions
of individual species, together with full proof that he has considered some of their peculiarities as of too much importance
in Systematic Botany.
4. H ymenophyllum jlabellatum, Lab.; Fl. Nov. Holl. v. 2. p. 101. t. 250. f. 1. Hook. Sp. FIL v. 1.
p. 111. Presl, Hymenopli. p. 32. H. nitens, Broivn Prodr. p. 159. Hook, et Grev. Ic. Fil. t. 197.
H a b . Lord Auckland’s group; not uncommon on the old and decajdng trunks of trees and upon rocks
both near th e sea and on the luHs.
Of a paler but brighter and more glistening green than the former. A very abmidant New Zealand and Tasmanian
species, -I'arjdng a good deal in size and somewhat in the form of the fr-ond.
5. H ymenophyllum r a nm , B r .; Prodr. p. 1 5 9 . Hook. Sp. Fil. v. 1. p. 1 0 1 . H . semibivalve, Hook,
ct Grev. Ic. F il. t. 83. Presl, Hymenopk. p. 32.
Far. /3. Hook. Sp. Fil. p. 1 01.
H a b . Lord jkucldand’s g ro u p ; in woods near the sea^ rare.