ARBORESCENT rERJJfS OP 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 pinnae 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 

 pinnae 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 the 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 



