nothing to distinguish it from H. demissum, even with a powerful magnifying-glass, and wrote to her to that effect. She has since sent me better specimens, and with them some which she had rightly classed as H. demissum, but which had evidently grown pendulous on a tree-trunk, and were of a paler green and more transparent texture than usual. As some members of our Society are no doubt aware, I was blind with cataract for about three years; and though by an operation the sight of one eye is so far restored that I can read and write, yet telescopes and microscopes are useless to me, not being capable of being adjusted to suit my altered vision. Thus, though the second specimens were less glossy than the first, I could not detect distinct tomentum. My son, however, happened to come to see me, and I showed him the specimens, which he said had the framework of the ferns distinctly furry; and thus I have come to the conclusion that the fern is a hybrid, though not sufficiently distinct from H. demissum to justify being separately classed.

It is not the first time that I have had ferns of a similar character sent to me by collectors for the purpose of being named; and I have also met with such examples myself. In particular, in a little bush at Otaihanga I found what was clearly Nephridium glabellum, yet which had developed slightly creeping roots like N. decompositum; and near to Nelson there is a small form of Asplenium umbrosum which creeps slightly instead of merely forming a crown of fronds. The late Rev. W. Colenso also evidently met with similar cases, and classed them as new ferns—e.g., his Lomaria aggregata is merely L. lanceolata, which had developed lateral crowns; and, curiously enough, just at the time when his paper on it was published in the Transactions, I noticed that a plant of this fern in one of my cases had similarly divided into several crowns. It seems to me pretty evident that when two prothalli grow so close together that when their edges meet they are forced upwards, their sexual organs must come close together; and if they are of closely allied species hybridisation is likely to occur. Thus I think the fern of which Miss Creswell sent me specimens is a cross between H. demissum and H. scabrum; and that the recognition of the possibility of hybridisation, if made known, may assist collectors in naming these, as it were, transitional forms.