North Island: Auckland—Whangaroa, R. W. Rowson! Great Barrier Island, Kirk! Whangarei, Coromandel, Thames, Titirangi, Hunua, T.F.C.; Te Aroha Mountain, Adams! South Island: Nelson—Mokihinui, Kirk! Canterbury—Upper Waimakariri, Arthur's Pass, Armstrong! Enys! Kirk! T.F.C. Westland—Hokitika, Kirk; Kumara, J. M. Brame; Okarito, A. Hamilton! Stewart Island: Ruggedy Mountains, Kirk. Sea-level to 3500 ft.
A peculiar little species, usually found among moss on the upper branches of forest-trees, or on the perpendicular faces of rocks. I am unable to maintain H. Armstrongii as a separate species, for the stout marginal nerve, which is supposed to separate it from H. Cheesemanii, is an inconstant character, and fronds may be picked from the same rhizome with or without it. Usually, however, epiphytic specimens want the nerve, and rupestral ones possess it.
16. H. minimum, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 91, t. 14, f. 2.—Minute, forming matted patches on rocks or on the trunks of trees. Rhizome much branched, filiform, wide-creeping, glabrous or sparingly bristly. Stipes wiry, filiform, naked, ⅙–½ in. long. Fronds very small, ¼–¾ in. long, broadly oblong-deltoid or ovate, erect or recurved, firm, pale-green when fresh, often reddish-brown when dry, pinnatifid or pinnate at the base. Segments 2–6 pairs, close, spreading, simple or the lower ones forked, linear, obtuse, more or less concave, rigid, quite glabrous; margins spinulose-dentate. Sori never more than one to a frond, terminating the main rhachis, stipitate, quite free. Indusium rather large, obovate-cuneate, narrowed at the base, 2-valved to the middle; valves spinulose on the back; margins rounded, sharply spinulose-dentate. Receptacle stout, often exserted in age.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 242; Raoul, Choix, 39; Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 103; Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 12; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 353; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. (edit. 2) 464; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 36.
South Island: Nelson—Tasman Bay, D'Urville. Westland—Coast near Okarito, A. Hamilton! Otago—Resolution Island, Enys! East Coast, Buchanan! A. Hamilton! Stewart Island: Not uncommon. Kirk! Auckland Islands: Scarce, Sir J. D. Hooker.
A much misunderstood species; most collectors confusing it with small forms of H. Tunbridgense, from which, however, it is readily distinguished by the uniformly solitary and terminal sori, the indusium of which is spinulose on the back as well as on the margins. It appears to be a littoral plant, never found far from the sea.
17. H. Tunbridgense, Smith, Fl. Brit. 1141.—Forming broad densely matted moss-like patches on rocks or on the trunks of trees. Rhizome much branched, long, wiry, creeping. Fronds variable in size, ½–3 in. long, ½–1 in. broad, oblong or linear-oblong, pale-green, membranous, pinnate below, pinnatifid above. Stipes ½–1½ in. long, slender, wiry, naked; rhachis winged above, wingless below, or sometimes the wing is decurrent almost to the lowest pinna. Pinnæ spreading, close or rather remote, usually flabellately pinnatifid. Segments 3–12 to a pinna, linear, obtuse, flat, conspicuously spinulose-dentate. Sori terminal on a short lateral seg-
