Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/1033

Asplenium.] A variable little plant, said to be found also in New South Wales and Victoria, but I have seen no specimens from thence. Var. Colensoi was placed with A. Richardi by Sir W. J. Hooker, and is retained as a distinct species by Mr. Baker in the "Synopsis Filicum." But, as stated by Mr. Field (N.Z. Ferns, 120), it often grows intermixed with the type, and occasionally the fronds of both forms can be found on the same plant. Mr. Colenso's A. ornatum is simply a state with the pinnules rather narrower than usual, and on longer stalks.

8. A. bulbiferum, Forst. Prodr. n. 433.—Rhizome short, stout, erect or oblique, crowned with linear-subulate scales. Stipes 4–12 in. long or more, compressed or semiterete, usually dark-brown and densely scaly at the base, above green or greyish-green and either naked or deciduously scaly. Fronds 1–4 ft. long, 6–12 in. broad, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, bright-green, scarcely membranous but flaccid, 2–3-pinnate or in small specimens pinnate; rhachis compressed, often scaly when young. Primary pinnæ numerous, horizontal, 3–6 in. long, 1–1½ in. broad, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, often proliferous on the upper surface, cut down to a narrowly winged rhachis into numerous secondary divisions or pinnules. Pinnules ½–1½ in. long, lanceolate to ovate-oblong, deeply pinnatifid; ultimate segments linear-oblong, entire or toothed. Sori short, oblique, oblong, on the disc of the shortly lobed pinnules, but often marginal on the segments of the more deeply divided ones.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 16; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 193; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 423; Sp. Fil.'' iii. 196; ''Homb. and Jacq. Voy. au Pôle Sud, Crypt. t. 3, f. 1; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' ii. 34; ''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 373; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 218; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 748; ''Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 75; Field, N.Z. Ferns,'' 121, t. 6, f. 5.

Var. laxum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. li. 34.—Fronds smaller and more slender, with narrower and more remote pinnæ. Pinnules more deeply divided; segments narrow-linear. Sori often marginal.— ''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 373; Hook. Sp. Fil.'' iii. 196; ''Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil.'' 218. A. laxum, ''R. Br. Prodr. 151; Homb. and Jacq. Voy. au Pôle Sud, Crypt, t. 3, f. J. A. gracillimum, Col. in Trans. N.Z Inst.'' xxii. (1890) 453. (?)A. triste, Raoul, Choix, 10.

Var. tripinnatum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 34.—Fronds ample, tripinnate, with narrow pinnules and segments resembling some forms of A. flaccidum, but more compound and texture thinner. Sori marginal on the segments.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 373; Hook. Sp. Fil.'' iii. 196. A. tremulum, ''Homb. and Jacq. Voy. au Pôle Sud, Crypt, t. 3 bis.'' The typical state of A. bulbiferum is a well-known plant throughout the whole of New Zealand, and is at once distinguished from the other species of the genus by the ample dark-green bipinnate fronds with comparatively broad pinnules, and especially by its habit of producing small bulbils on the upper surface of the frond, which develop into young plants while still attached to the frond. When the bulbils are not developed, and the frond is more slender, with narrower and more deeply divided pinnules, so that the sori are often almost marginal, the plant becomes var. laxum. This runs into several small 32— Fl
 * Abundant throughout, especially in damp woods. Moku. Sea-level to 3000 ft.