8 FLORA OP NEW ZEALAND. [Filices. 



The finest specimen of this which I have seen is a portion of a frond with the main rachis, gathered by Cun- 

 ningham, and now in Mr. Reward's Herbarium. Forster's is a single pinna in the Hookerian Herbarium. Mr. 

 Colenso's specimens are smaller and in a younger state ; Dr. Sinclair's are very glabrous throughout. All these are 

 intermediate between C. medullaris and C. SmitMi, differing from the former in the flaccid, membranous, pale green 

 fronds, which are more or less pubescent and scaly along the partial rachis and costa beneath, and from the latter in 

 the longer pinnules. The involucre is sometimes irregularly torn from the top; at others, and apparently more frequently, 

 it separates from the base on one side and turns back against the frond as a shallow cup, exactly as in the C. Smithn : 

 both states of involucre occur on the same frond. Main rachis muricated with minute scattered raised points. 



4. Cyathea SmitMi, Hook. fil. ; arborea, stipite basi paleis rigidis elongatis serralatis dense cnnito 

 superne glabrato, raclii costaque infra sparse pilosis pilis laxis rails deciduis ornatis supra strigoso-villosis, 

 fronde bipinnata, pinnis primariis lineari-elongatis, secundariis sessilibus linearibus lineari-oblongisve sub- 

 acuminatis profunde pinnatifidis basi pinnatis, segmentis lineari-oblongis acutis subfalcatis serratis crena- 

 tisve supra giaberrimis infra costa basi paleacea pilosa v. glabrata, soris ad angnlum venae furcatse msertis, 

 indusio hemisphaerico. (Tab. LXXII.) 



ITab. Northern Island ; mountains of the east coast and interior : Tehawera, Tararua, and Bualune 

 range, Colenso ; Wellington, Sinclair ; Middle Island, In/all. 



A beautiful Tree-fern, discovered by Mr. Colenso, who says that the trunk attains 24 feet in height, and is 

 rough with the persistent bases of the stipes. Dr. Sinclair's specimens are old and almost entirely glabrous.— 

 Fronds very delicate and beautiful, 6-7 feet long, used by the natives to ornament their meeting-places, etc. Young 

 stipes at the base densely clothed with a thick brush of long, shining, rigid, dark brown, linear-subulate paleas, 1J- 

 inch long ; these are shorter, broader, and curved on the old stipes. Main rachis pale, quite smooth, as are the 

 partial ones towards their bases on the under surface of the frond, more or less hairy or paleaceous towards the ends 

 of the pinnae, as are the midribs of the pinnules. Pinna 12-15 inches long, 4-5 broad, deep green and glabrous 

 above, except along the rachis and costa, which are densely pubescent or strigose, paler green below. Secondary 

 pinnce 2-2-| inches long, f inch broad, deeply pinnatifid, pinnate at the base. Segments linear-oblong, acute, 

 slightly curved, coarsely toothed. Sori at the fork of a vein. Receptacle club-shaped, glabrous. Involucre a small 

 shallow cup, that covers the sorus in a very young state, bursts transversely externally on. one side, and then 

 becomes reflected against the frond, as in Remilelia, from which genus it differs in habit and in the young involucre 

 covering the sorus. (Named in honour of Mr. ,7. Smith, the able curator of the Royal Gardens at Kew, who is no 

 less distinguished for his knowledge of this Natural Order, than for the skill and zeal which he has devoted to the 

 collection of living Perns in those gardens, which is incomparably the finest and richest in Europe.) — Plate LXXII. 

 Pig. 1, part of stipes ; 2, scale from the same ; 3, pinnule with sori ; 4, receptacle and involucre -.—all magnified. 



Gen. III. ALSOPHILA, Br. 



Sori dorsales, globosi. Receptaculum prorninulum. Imvolucrum 0. Fence pinnatfe, liberse, sirnplices 

 v. furcatas — Caudex smpius arborescens. 



A very large genus of tropical Tree-ferns, of which more than fifty species are enumerated, but few of which 

 grow in the south temperate zone : of these one is an Australian plant, found also on the north coast of Tasmania, 

 and another is the A. excelsa of Norfolk Island, which is the loftiest of Tree-ferns, and said to attain 80 feet, and 

 the third is the plant here described. The genus is distinguished from the two preceding by the absence of any 

 involucre, and from Polypodimn by the arborescent habit and elevated receptacle of the sorus. The latter often 

 bears long jointed hairs amongst the capsules. (Name from aXaos, a grove, and 4>i\w, to love.) 



1. Alsophila Colensoi, Hook. fil. ; arborea, fronde gracili bipinnata submembranacea, racM costaque 

 superne laxe paleaceo-pilosa subtus pilosa squamisque bullatis membranaceis deciduis ornata, pinnulis 



