‘ ARBORESCENT FERNS OF NEW ZEALAND. 165 
closely pressed to its sides and spring upwards nearly straight 
and almost parallel with the direction of the stem, till the first or 
lower pinnæ are produced, even to a distance of five, six, or more 
feet; from this point the frond springs outwards, and, carrying its 
breadth well up into the air, brings its apex out a little below the 
body of the frond. The rachis is rough to the touch, and rounded 
in form, with a perceptible channel or mid-groove commencing 
some distance above the base. [A portion of the rachis cut off 
here, for three feet or more, has very much the appearance of.a 
double-barreled gun, from the groove and the dark colour.] Lower 
pinnæ alternate, ascending nearly at right angles with the rachis, 
while the succeeding ones gradually assume the horizontal direc- 
tion (from the rachis). Fronds coriaceous, usually of a bright 
shining green above, paler beneath, 6-9 springing out at once, 
and at this stage of its growth appearing to be rather brittle. 
When this fern has made a stem of ten feet or more, it will be 
noticed that the stem is ragged, from the remains of the fallen 
fronds, the stipites of which, often empty of cellular matter, hang 
merely by the internal fibres and outer black shell-like covering. 
When these last have decayed away, the fibres in connexion with 
the scars on the stem still stand out like so many dried-up grassy 
tufts. Should the stem at this time begin to form its dense, 
matted, granular addition, which it puts on sooner or later, and 
by which the stem is greatly increased in diameter up to a variable 
height, then these persistent fibres occasion the additional growth 
to protrude over them, thus making this portion of the stem 
appear more knobbed than it otherwise would do. As this fern 
usually grows on the side of a gully, and generally on one side of 
it in preference to the other, this additional growth is always 
greater in thickness towards the centre of ihe gully and away 
from the bank, and gives the lower part of the stem a kind of 
rough-triangular form. This growth sometimes attains a girth 
of six or seven feet, extending in a gradually lessening deposit 
upwards to a height of perhaps ten or more feet from the 
ground. | 
This is a provision of nature applied to the weaker side of the 
stem, occasioned by the damp and moisture trickling down the stem, 
and provides a firm buttress to the lofty rise of the stem, which 
sometimes attains a height of forty or fifty feet, and even, as it is 
said, of eighty. The trunk seldom rises straight up, but takes a 
bend or stoop, and always towards the gully, as if it experienced a 
great weight of fronds; and having formed this additional prop, it 
