304 Transactions. — Botany. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATES XXVI. AND XXVII. 

 Fig. 1. Draparnaldia. 



2. Spirogyra. 



(a) filaments conjugating. 



(b) zygospore. 



(c) the same commencing to grow. 



3. Zygnema. 



4. Zygnema. 



5. Oscillatorife from Taupo. 



Art. XXXVIII. — A Description of four new Ferns from our New Zealand 



Forests. By William Colenso, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 12th June, 1882.] 



I. Cyathea, Smith. 



Cyathea tricolor, sp. nov. 



Plant, arborescent ; trunk stout, 5-12 feet high, bulky at base and at 

 top, 1 foot diameter there, fibrous at base and for 2-3 feet up, thickly 

 clothed with broken stipites at top ; colour, light-brown. 



Fronds numerous, 30-40, tri-pinnate, spreading, drooping, glabrous, 

 shining, 7-8 feet long, 38-40 inches broad in widest part, oblong-lanceolate 

 not acuminate, decreasing very gradually downwards, sub-membranaceous, 

 dark-green above, white below. 



Stipes very stout, 3-3^ inches girth at base, short, 3-4 inches long, 

 obscurely triquetrous, flattish or a little rounded at top, and slightly chan- 

 nelled towards base, brittle, succulent, gummy, dark-olive green above, 

 peculiar bluish-white below, prickly with small fine sharp black prickles, 

 y 1 ^ inch long, recurved, scattered, in some places very closely set, 2 to a 

 line, and sometimes running in irregular rows ; scales, at base of stipes, 

 very numerous, long, shining, dark-brown, 2 inches long, and 2 lines broad 

 at base, flat, thin, very acuminate, finely striated longitudinally, margins 

 entire, crumpled towards top, concave and transversely corrugated at base. 



Rhachis, main and secondary, glabrous, bright golden-yellow above, 

 finely and floccosely tomentose below with deciduous ferruginous tomentum, 

 bluish-white underneath, subcylindrical not channelled below, (but chan- 

 nelled above in dried specimens), main rhachis (and stipe) marked longitu- 

 dinally on both upper outer edges with a line of oblong-lanceolate brick-red 

 scars, and having 2-3 of such red blotches at the base of each pinna, 

 always nearer to the upper angle. 



Pinna, distant (4-5 inches) on rhachis, alternate sometimes opposite, 

 lowest two pans opposite, the largest near the middle 18-19 inches long, 

 8-9 inches broad, drooping. 



