STOVE FEENS. 



place, this species is truly a tree Fern. The fronds are tri- 

 pinnate, from 6 to 8 feet long, standing on an erect caudex 



or stem. They are very stiff, 

 and of a dull green, with 

 scales on the underside of the 

 leaves. The stalks are almost 

 black, and have thorns on 

 them. The spore-masses are 

 cup-shaped, with the spores 

 standing above the edge, 

 looking, when magnified, very 

 like an acorn enclosed in its 

 cup. It must be increased 

 by spores. Being such a large 

 Fern, its culture should not 

 be attempted except where 

 there is plenty of room. 



C. DEALS ATA (Powdered). 

 A New Zealand tree Fern 

 of great beauty. A friend of 

 ours sent us some years 

 ago a quantity of spores of 

 this fine Fern ; but whether 

 they had perished on the 

 voyage, or been shaken out 

 of the cases and lost, we could 

 never get one to make its 

 appearance. We have seen 

 dead stems of it nearly as thick as a man's body, and upwards 

 of 10 feet high. It is said, in our wars with the natives, these 

 Fern-stems served the savages as skulking-places, from whence 

 many a deadlyirrow has been shot at the unsuspecting Briton. 

 The fronds are very beautiful, of a bluish-green on the 

 upper surface, and richly powdered with white underneath. 

 They are 6 or 7 feet long, jointed, and placed on the top of 



Fig. 14. Cyathea eiegans. (Pinnule natural 

 size, and segment showing position of 

 veins and sori, and a sorus magnified.) 



