Cotenso.—Description of new Ferns. 305 
Pinnules (secondary divisions), sessile, 84-44 inches long, 10-12 lines 
broad, broadest at base, triangular, finely and very beautifully acuminate, 
apices finely and regularly serrated to tip. 
Segments, sessile, 5-6 lines long, 1 line broad, linear, entire, margins 
conniving in fruit and subcrenulate at sori, pointed, distant, faleate, lower 
pinnate and pectinate, the single lowest segment on the underside of pinna 
subpetiolate; veins red, 9-10 jugate on a segment, simple, forked, and 
branching. 
Sori,in axil of fork of veins, nearer midrib than margin, numerous, 
crowded filling segments, large, regular, biseriate, 14-18 on a large segment, 
dark-brown, extending to tips of pinnules and pinns, with always one close 
set in at base of segment to rhachis of pinnule. 
Involucre, a shallow circular cup, margin entire, rarely breaking-up. 
Receptacle, broadly clavate, pubescent ; showing point of insertion by a 
pit on upper side of segment. 
In both its young and barren state this species of Cyathea might be 
easily confounded at first sight with the well-known and ubiquitous New 
Zealand species C. dealbata, from its being equally as white on its foliage 
below. On examination and comparison however, of living specimens, the 
two whites on the under foliage of the two plants will be found to differ 
greatly,—that of this one possessing a bluish tint, (just the hue of the 
oxidized corrugated iron roofing of our houses,) which colour is more 
particularly shown on its thick and succulent stipes, which are also thickly 
set with small sharp black prickles. Indeed, in its young and barren state, 
the whiteness of the underside of the fronds of this species, often shows 
even more conspicuously than that of C. dealbata, when a frond is turned 
up or half-reversed in its native woods ; owing to the much greater contrast 
arising from the darker-green of its upper foliage. 
In its many colours, too, this fern is peculiar:—1. its shining dark- 
green upper foliage; 9. its large, thick, glossy golden-yellow prominent 
stalks (rhaehises, main and secondary); 8. its white underneath, appearing 
so solid, unbroken, through its being so glabrous there also, and not having 
there any large coloured scales or hairs; and 4. (when in fruit) its shining 
dark-brown elusters of large sori showing to advantage on their white 
ground. Indeed, I might truly enough have specifically named it versi- 
color. 
Another striking peculiarity of this species when in fruit, is its general 
and regular drooping appearance, and that, not merely of its large fronds 
inelining forwards and downwards, as obtains with some other of its con- 
geners (as C. medullaris and C. polyneuron), but its characteristic threefold, 
or even fourfold, manner of drooping :—firstly, its fronds outwards and 
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