Art. XL.—On a Remarkable Variation in Lomaria lanceolata.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 25, 1892, Page 306

Art. XL.—On a Remarkable Variation in Lomaria lanceolata. By R. I. Kingsley. [Read before the Nelson Philosophical Society, 28th March, 1892.] The plant which forms the subject of this short paper (and of which I exhibit specimens) was collected by Mr. W. H. Bryant and myself on the north-western slope of “Little Ben,” a hill whose altitude is about 2,884ft., and situate some seven or eight miles up the Wairoa River. Our visit was a very short one. We ascended the hill on the morning of the 1st January last, and stayed one night only, and this short stay was further limited by rain on the forenoon of the 1st. Nevertheless we saw much of interest, and the trip was thoroughly enjoyable. In a well-wooded gully we found a number of plants of Lomaria lanceolata, and in one spot, for a distance of about three or four yards, we found the greater portion of them showing a tendency to vary: some showed a bifurcate tendency, others trifurcate, and in two cases a quadrifurcate variation. We did not in any plant find every frond furcated, but in one specimen I noticed eight fronds, both fertile and sterile, which had varied in one direction or another. It was curious to notice that nowhere else could we discover any tendency to vary, although this species of Lomaria was abundant. I communicated the fact to Mr. Kirk, and furnished him with specimens, and he informs me that he has no previous record of a tendency to vary in Lomaria lanceolata. Mr. W. H. Bryant is attempting to propagate this variety from the spores. In the Wairoa Valley I also noticed a remarkable case of reversion in Pseudopanax ferox. At about 12ft. from the ground, in a tree whose diameter was over a foot, there is a tuft of those peculiar and strikingly ornamental leaves of the young-plant type. On the side of Little Ben I gathered a specimen of fungus which Mr. Kirk tells me is new to New Zealand flora, and has no near-allied species. The new Asplenium, A. tenuifolium, is also found growing in the Wairoa Gorge. It was originally discovered at Takaka (vide Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxiii., p. 424). Some very large manuka trees were also observed on Little Ben, from 2ft. to 3ft. in diameter, the finest I ever saw. I do not know if this is an unusual size.