Dicksonia. | FILICES. 953. 
Excluding the section Patania (Dennstedtia, Bernh.), which seems to be 
more appropriately placed in the vicinity of Davallia, the genus contains about 
25 species, widely dispersed through the tropical and subtropical regions of both 
hemispheres. The 3 New Zealand species are endemic, but one of them differs. 
but slightly from the Australian D. antarctica, Labill. 
Trunk 6—20ft., slender, black. Stipes blackish-brown, 
tubercled. Sori 6-12 on each segment #2 x: 
Trunk 6-20ft., very stout, brown. Stipes short, pale- 
brown, smooth. Sori 3-6 toeach segment .. 2. 2. De forosa: 
Trunk wanting or very short. Stipes long, smooth, pale. 
Sori 6-12 to each segment a ate os 
1. D. squarrosa. 
3. D. lanata. 
1. D. squarrosa, Swariz, Syn. Fil. 186, 355.—Trunk 6-20 ft. 
high, slender, black or dark-brown, clothed above with the per- 
sistent bases of the old stipites. Fronds 4-8 ft. long, rarely more, 
2-34 ft. broad, oblong-lanceolate, 2—3-pinnate, rigid and coriaceous. 
Stipes slender, dark-brown or black at the base, paler above, when 
voung clothed with long brownish-black hairs or sete, almost gla- 
brous when old, sides and under-surface rough with numerous small 
tubercles; rhachis and coste clothed with deciduous reddish-brown 
wool above, rough with minute tubercles beneath. Primary pinne 
10-20 in. long, 3-5 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate ; second- 
ary 14-3in. long, $-4in. broad, deeply pinnatifid. Barren seg- 
ments ovate or oblong, rigid, sharply toothed, the teeth almost 
pungent; fertile smaller and much contracted, pinnatifid. Sori 
copious, covering the whole under-surface of the frond, 5-12 on each 
segment or 1 to each lobule. Indusium rather large, both valves 
concave.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 216; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Sp. 
Fil. i. 68; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1.9; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 351; Hook. 
and Bak. Syn. Ful.51; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 31; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 50, 
t. 10, i. 6, and t. 25, f.6. OD. gracilis, Col. an Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. 
(1883) 306. Trichomanes squarrosum, forst. Prodr. n. 476. 
NortH AND SoutH Isnanps, StrEwart Isuanp, CHATHAM IsLANDS.—Abund- 
ant in woods throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Wekt or Whekt. 
Easily recognised by the slender blackish trunk, harsh and coriaceous fronds, 
dark-coloured stipes rough with small tubercles beneath, and rather large copious 
sori. The trunk is occasionally branched and sometimes produces numerous 
adventitious buds along its whole length, crowned with miniature fronds. A 
form possessing this peculiarity, and with the fronds rather narrower and more 
finely cut than usual, was described by Mr. Colenso as a distinct species under 
the name of D. gracilis. I cannot separate it even as a variety. 
2. D. fibrosa, Col. in Tasmanian Journ. Nat. Sci. (1845) 19.— 
Trunk 8-20ft. high, stout, columnar, everywhere thickly coated 
with matted fibrous aerial rootlets, giving it a diameter when mature 
of from 1-2 ft., clothed towards the top with the old pendent withered 
fronds. Fronds numerous, 30 or more, spreading, 4-8ft. long, 
13—2 ft. broad, lanceolate, 2—-3-pimnate, coriaceous but not so much 
so as in D. squarrosa. Stipes very short, clothed at the base with 
dense bright red-brown fibrillose scales; rhachis and costs pale- 
