C l a s s ACOTYLEDONES.
N at. Oed. I. FILICES.
^ Tasmania, as compared with the drier conliiient of Australia, is v er, rich in Ferns (including Lyco-
poiiaeex, etc.), but poor it compared with the New Zealand Islands, which have just twice as many Ferns,
and not much more than half as man; dowermg plants, as Tasmania possesses. Tropical Australia contains
about as many Ferns as Tasmania, almost all ot them belonging to different species. New Sonth Wales
and Victoria (that is. South-eastern Australia) contain about as many as Tasmania, whilst South-west
Australia presents scarcely a dozen species. The Tasmanian Perns are almost nneaceptionally identical
with New Zealand ones, and many have a very wide range indeed.
Tribe I. GLEicHBnnicEÆ, Hr.— Capsula 2 -4 , sessile, iurstiny
longitudinally, completely surrounded by an
e or transverse striated ring.
Gen. I. GLEICHENIA, Smith.
Involucrum 0, v. e margine frondis revolutæ. Capsules in quovis soro 1 -6 , sessiles, annulo complete
cinctæ, longitudinaliter dehiscentes.— Ehizoma repens.
A large genus, of coriaceous, rigid, opaque Ferns, chiefly natives of the tropics, Australia, and New Zealand.
A few are found iu Japan, Owhyhee, and temperate South America.—Æ/Arome creeping, often chaffy or woolly,
as IS the whole plant sometimes. Stipes erect, rigid, sometimes very smaU and slender. Frond dichotomously
branched; divisions simple or pinnate. Pinnæ narrow, pinnatifid; the segments generaUy convex, sometimes with
revolute margins, which form an involucre. Sori of one to six sessüe capsides, that burst longitudinally, each surrounded
by a complete ring, placed at the end or middle or axü of the simple or forked veinlets.—The microscopic
characters of a naked sorus, consisting of very few capsules, and a complete ring suiTounding the sessüe capsule,
which bursts from the base to the apex, are certain marks of this genus. (Name in honour of K. JV. F. von
Gleichm, a German author on microscopic plants.)
§ 1 . E u g l e i c h e n - i a .— 5 o m at the apex of a veinlet. Segments of the pinna broad, short.
1. G le ic h em a m ic ro p h y lla (Br. Prodr. 16 1 ); fronde dichotome ramosa, ramis divarieatis pin-
natis, pinuis pinnatifidis glabris, lobis subrotundis ovatisve planis concavisve, marginibus non inflexis,
capsulis 1 -4 exsertis, rachibus stipiteque superne hirtis, pilis ferrugineis rachi sæpius stellatis.—Hook. Sp.
Fil. i. p . 3. /. 2 A. G. semivestita, Labill. Sert. Nov. Cal. p . 8 . /. 11. G. Speluncæ, Guill. Ic. Plant.
Par. t. 12. {Gunn, 13, 1500, 1502.)
H a b . Common in loose forest land, etc. : Georgetown, Macquarrie Harbour, etc.— (v.v.)
D is t r ib . New South Wales and Victoria, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Malay Islands. (Cultivated
in England.)
Fronds l | - 3 feet high. Stipes terete, slender, generally smooth, often shining below, woolly or chaffy above.
Branches dichotomous, spreadmg, u span to a foot long, forked and pinnate ; rachis chaffy, and covered with scattered,
steDate, rusty-red hairs. Pinna l i - 2 inches long, -} inch broad, shining above, often glaucous below, there
covered with long, weak, lax, deciduous hairs, or perfectly glabrous ; costa often chaffy in the young state, smootli
in the old. Segments broadly oblong or rounded, not cucullate as in the following species. Capsules one to four.
—The G. Speluncæ figured iu the ‘ Species Füicum,’ from Tasmania (Gunn, 3 4 ), appears to be a young specimen
of this species.
2. Gleich en ia dicarpa (Br. Prodr. 17 1 ); fronde dichotome ramosa, ramis divarieatis pinnatis,
pinnis pinnatifidis subtus densissime fcrrugineo-lanatis squamosisque glabratis glaberrimisve, segmentis orbi-
culatis saccatis lato margine cinctis, capsulis binis, rachi costaque lanatis paleaceisque rarius glabratis.—
Eook. Sp. Fil. i. p . 3. t. 1 C; Fil. Exot. t. 4 0 ; Kunze, Farnkr. p . 164. /. 70. f . 2. G. Vulcanica,
Plume, En. Fil. -lav. 251. {Gunn, 1504.)
Var. 0 . alpina; minor, densius ferrugineo-lanata et paleacea.—G. alpina, Br. et Hook. I.e .; Eook.
et Grev. Ia. Fil. t. 58. {Gunn, 1504, in part.)
Hab. Abundant, especially in subalpine districts; var. 0 ascending to 4000 feet.— (y. v.) (Cultivated
in England.)
D is t r ib . Alps of Victoria, New Zealand, New Caledonia; lofty mountains of Java and Celebes, and
Malacca.
This is a rather common Tasmanian plant, and varies extremely in the amount of woolly clothing it bears.
Sometimes the whole plant, from the rhizome upwards, is covered with a soft brown wool and chaff (such is especiaUy
the case with alpine specimens); at other times the plant is nearly glabrous throughout, and the under surface
of the lobes is glaucous. Tasmauian specimens attain nearly as large a size as G. semivestita; New Zealand
ones are smaUer, and more slender. The piun® are more slender than in G. semivestita, and the saccate lobes,
which look like closed boxes with transverse slits, at once distinguish this specificaUy. I have in vahi attempted
to distinguish G. alpina as a species; it is certainly only an alpine, and consequently stunted, and often woolly
state of G. dicarpa; I have not only gathered these varieties passing into one another, but Mr. Gunn’s magnificent
sidtes of specimens show every transition state. Some of my specimens of var. 0 alpina, from Mount Wellington,
are as glabrous as any of G. dicarpa.
§ 2. M e r t e n s ia .—Sonis at the middle or fork of a veinlet. Segments of the pinna linear.
8. Gleich en ia flabellata (Br. Prodr. 16 1 ); fronde submembranacea dichotome ramosa prolifera
flabelliformi bipinnata, piiinulis ascendentibus linearibus acutis serrulatis utrinque concoloribus subtus glaberrimis
pubescentibusve, capsulis 4 -6 exsertis, costa rachi stipiteque nudis glaberrimis v. rarius pubescentibus.—
Hook. Sp. Fil. i.p . 6 ; Fil. Exot. t. 71. {Gunn, 23.)
Var. 0 . tene^-a; submembranacea, pinnulis linearibus integerrimis. — G. tenera, Br. Prodr. 161.
{Gunn, 1506.)
IIab. Damp shaded places, but not very common : Yorktown, Gzmn.— {v.v.) Var. Calder’s Pass,
on the road from Lake St. Clair to Macquarrie Harbour.
D is t r ib . New South Wales and Victoria, New Zealand, New Caledonia. (Cultivated in England.)
A much larger plant than any of the fonner, 2 ^ feet high, with larger, broader, more membranous and proliferous
fronds, having several tiers of branches rising above one another.— Pinnules narrow, long, serrate, green on
both sides. Stipes, costa, and rachis without búllate scales.—The G. tenera, Br., appears to me to be only a more
membranons state.
Tribe II. CyathEuE.— Soms globose. Capsules with an incomplete vertical ring, sessile or stalked, placed
on an elevated receptacle, often mixed with jointed hairs.
Geu. II . ALSOPHILA, Br.
Sori dorsales, globosi. Beeepfaculum promiuulum. Involucrum 0. Vt
V. farcatæ.—Caudex sapins arborescens.
A very large genus of tropical Tree-Ferns, of which more tlian fifty species an
grow in the south temperate zone ; of these one is an Australian plant, found also o
ZÆ pinnatæ, liberæ, simplices
enumerated, but few of them
I the north coast of Tasmania ;