Kirx.—On a remarkable Arborescent Fern. 347 
It is especially to be remarked that arborescent specimens of D. lanata 
become rare as the plant recedes from the north, until at Taupo, as was long 
since pointed out by Colenso (the discoverer of both species in the colony) it 
covers the ground like Pteris. At Whangarei, Kaipara, and other localities 
north of the Auckland Isthmus, stemless specimens are extremely rare,— 
arborescent specimens are abundant. D. lanata is also far more local within 
its area than D. antarctica. 
D. lanata is endemic in these islands, while D. antarctica is found in East 
Australia, Tasmania, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. 
Colenso states that the Maoris of the interior formerly used boards cut 
from the fibrous part of the stem of D. antarctica in the construction of their 
provision stores, the tough wiry fibres affording almost complete immunity 
from the attacks of rats. 
as XLIV.—Notice of a remarkable Arborescent Fern on Ngongotaha. 
By L Kir, ELS. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 14th October, 1872.] 
Art the height of about 1,400 feet on Ngongotaha, a wooded peak on the 
south-west side of Rotorua, I met with a remarkable specimen of Cyathea 
dealbata, Swartz, the silver tree-fern of the settlers. 
The specimen is between nine and ten feet in height, with the trunk some- 
what inclined ; at about eight feet from the ground it divides into two 
branches, each under eighteen inches in length ; one of these is again divided, 
but the branches have not diverged, and are growing in such close contact as 
to resemble at first sight rather a single branch with a double crown, than 
two distinct branches. All the branches are crowned with fronds. 
The trunk presents no marked feature, but the branches are much 
thickened and swollen, partly from being covered with a dense coat of 
hardened paleaceous scales ; amongst these scales lateral crowns have become 
developed and given off bods varying in number from three to five on — 
crown, and from six to fifteen inches in length. 
This singular specimen had evidently been recently scorched by fire, which 
had destroyed a portion of the old fronds ; new fronds were developing in the 
greatest health and vigour. 
From the condition of the branches, I am led to infer that they owe their 
origin to a division of the growing point arising from the attacks of insects, 
and that a continuance of the same cause has led to a development of the 
lateral crowns. This might possibly have been proved or disproved by a 
