Cyathea. | FILICES. 949 
lets, sometimes extending for several feet up the trunk, and 1-24 ft. 
diam. at the foot; trunk proper rather slender for its height, black, 
marked with the hexagonal scars of the old stipites, and at the very 
top rough with the remains of the stipites. Fronds numerous, 
20-30, curving, 8-20 ft. long, 3-5 ft. broad, 2-3-pinnate, coriaceous, 
dark-green above, paler beneath. Stipes stout, clothed at the base 
with copious black linear scales, and together with the rhachis more 
or less covered with scattered tubercles. Primary pinne 14-3 ft. 
long, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary 4—6 in. long, #-14in. 
broad, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, acuminate, pinnate below, 
pinnatifid above, costs more or less clothed with tawny silky hairs 
or glabrous. Pinnules or segments about 4 in. long, ;4,-¢1n. broad, 
linear or linear-oblong, obtuse, falcate; the fertile ones deeply 
crenate-serrate or lobulate, sometimes pinnatifid; the barren ones 
broader, crenate-serrate or almost entire; costules usually with 
pale ciliated scales beneath. Sori very numerous, one to each lobe 
of the pinnule. Indusium brown, membranous, splitting into 2—4 
irregular lobes.—A. Rich. Fl. Nowy. Zel. 78; A. Cunn. Precur. 
none2; aoul, Choiz, 38; Hook. Sp. Fil. 1. 26; Hook. f.. i. 
Nov. Zel. ii. 7; Handb. N.Z. Fi. 349; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 25; 
Thoms. N.4Z. Ferns, 28; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 42, t. 9, £.3. C. poly- 
neuron, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. (1879) 429. Polypodium 
medullare, Forst. Prodr. n. 452; Pl. Hscul. 74. 
Norrs anp SoutH Istanps, Stewart IsLAND, CHATHAM ISLANDS: From 
the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards, abundant, except in 
the east of Canterbury and Otago. Sea level to 2000 ft. Korau ; Mamaku ; 
Black Tree-fern. 
Apparently the same species occurs in south-east Australia, Tasmania, and 
in several of the Pacific islands. Colenso’s C. polynewron, separated by him 
chiefly on account of the more numerous veinlets, hardly seems to be entitled to 
the rank of a variety. The mucilaginous pith of the trunk and lower part of the 
stipes was formerly baked and eaten by the Maoris, and was considered to be an 
excellent article of food. 
3. C. Milnei, Hook. ex Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 349.—Trunk 
tall, 20-40 ft. high, 1 ft. in diam. at the base. Fronds numerous, 
6-18 ft. long, 2-4 ft. broad, 2-3-pinnate, not so coriaceous as in 
C. medullaris, dark-green above, paler beneath. Stipes stout, 
clothed at the base with copious linear scales, slightly asperous on 
the under-surface, more or less covered, as are the rhachides and 
costee, with yellowish-brown deciduous wool. intermixed with mem- 
branous scales. Primary pinne 14-24 it. long, 6-10in. wide, 
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate ; secondary 3-din. long, about in 
broad, linear-oblong, acuminate, deeply pinnatifid. Segments 
4-41in. long, oblong, obtuse, falcate, obscurely crenate-serrate, 
margins slightly recurved, under-surface often scaly-pubescent. 
Sori copious, rather large, nearer the costule than the margin. 
