104 MR. J. G. BAKER ON THE POLYNESIAN FERNS 



Contributions to the Botany of H.M.S. l Challenger.' 



XXXI. On the Polynesian Ferns of the ' Challenger ' Expedition. 



By J. Gr. Baker, Esq., F.L.S. 



[Read December 2, 1875.] 



The following is a complete catalogue of the ferns gathered in 

 Polynesia by Mr. Moseley and the other naturalists in the ' Chal- 

 lenger,' with their stations. The collection contains eleven new 

 species; and the sets from the Admiralty, Aru, and Little Kei 

 Islands are specially interesting, because the Pteridology of these 

 groups offers an entirely untrodden field to the explorer. The 

 arrangement followed and nomenclature adopted in the catalogue 

 is that of the second edition of our ' Synopsis Filicum ;? and the 

 numbers prefixed to the new species indicate the place into which 

 they fall in the classification there followed. 



Gleichenia dichotoma, Willd. 

 Summit of Ternate. 



Cyathea arachnoidea, Hook. 



Ternate, 2000-4000 feet. * 



Quite agrees with the two specimens in the Kew Herbarium 

 from Ternate, from which the species was described, which were 

 all we previously possessed. 



52*. Cyathea Moseleyi, Baker, n. sp. Frond ample, pinnate. 

 Rachises brown, those of the pinnae ciliated on the upperside, naked 

 on the lower. Pinnae oblong-lanceolate, H foot by 5-6 inches. 

 Pinnules sessile, ligulate-lanceolate, 2£-3 inches long, f-f inch broad, 

 cut down to the rachis into subentire, blunt, slightly curved, tertiary 

 segments 2 lines broad. Texture moderately firm. Upper surface 

 nakert ; lower with many minute, deltoid, bullate scales on the mid- 

 rib of the veins. Veins 8-10-jugate, ascending, distinct, all but the 

 uppermost forked. Sori 8-10 to a segment, median, placed a distinct 

 space from both edge and midrib, and with a distinct space between 

 each. Involucre large, membranous, persistent, with a regularly 

 truncate margin. 



Admiralty Isles. 



Nearest the Fijian and Samoan C. propinqua, Mett. 



47*. Alsophila polyphlebia, Baker, n. sp. Height of trunk up 

 to 25 feet. Frond ample, tripinnate. Rachis of pinnae pale brown, 

 slightly furfuraceous and rough with raised points. Pinnae oblong- 

 lanceolate, 2 feet long, 7-8 inches broad. Pinnules sessile, lanceolate- 

 ligulate, 3£-4 inches long, an inch broad, cut down to the rachis into 



