Colenso. — Description of neiv Ferns. 305 



Pinnules (secondary divisions), sessile, 3^-4^ 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, falcate, lower 

 pinnate and pectinate, the single lowest segment on the underside of pinna 

 subpetiolate ; veins red, 9-10 jugate on a segment, s,hnple, 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 pinna?, 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 ; 2. its large, thick, glossy golden-yellow prominent 

 stalks (rhachises, main and secondary) ; 3. 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 clusters 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 

 inclining forwards and downwards, as obtains with some other of its con- 

 geners (as C. medullaris and C. poly neuron), but its characteristic threefold, 

 or even fourfold, manner of drooping : — firstly, its fronds outwards and 

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