30G Transactions. — Botany. 



downwards ; secondly, their pinnae downwards and inwards towards the 

 main rhachis ; thirdly the pinnules downwards and inwards towards the 

 secondary rhachises ; and then, fourthly, the very fruiting segments them- 

 selves conniving inwardly :* the whole tout-ensemble being peculiar among 

 our tree-ferns, and most graceful. 



Owing to its many colours, its drooping compact shape, and its being 

 much more of a dwarf (though stout) tree-fern than its congeners, fully 

 bearing fruit when only five feet high, it wears a very peculiar and striking 

 appearance (especially when looking down on it from a height a little 

 above) — one that attracts the eye immediately. 



I have long known this " fern in its young and barren state ; and I had 

 always a suspicion that it was really distinct from C. dealbata ; but Dr. Sir 

 J. Hooker had so clearly stated that C. dealbata was our only tree-fern 

 bearing "fronds "that were " white and glaucous below," that I confess 

 I have been for a considerable time thrown off my guard with respect to 

 it. But during this last autumn, while botanizing in another and unvisited 

 part of the Seventy-mile Bush, I fell in with several plants of this species, 

 of various sizes and ages, and many of them bearing fruit in profusion, so 

 I had ample means and opportunity for examination. 



Hab. Deep forests (Seventy-mile Bush) on eastern outlying spurs of the 

 Buahine Mountain Range, between Norsewood and Danneverke villages ; 

 April, 1882. 



II. Dicksonia, L'Heritier. 



Dicksonia gracilis, n. sp. 



Plant, arborescent ; trunk 10-15 feet high, slender, greyish-brown ; on 

 upper portion remains of old stipites, and at top a few dead fronds hanging 

 down ; bearing young plants and shoots 2-3 feet from the base. 



Fronds, 40 and upwards, sub-membranaceous, glabrous, 5-5-| feet long, 

 2-4 feet wide, tripiunate, oblong-lanceolate, patent, light-green above and 

 lighter-green below, upper portion very free and loose not compact. 



Stipes, 9-10 inches long, at first upright and inclined inwards towards 

 trunk, sub-clasping, with a large quantity of loose light red-brownish hairs 

 at bases, and a dense layer of lighter coloured hirsute tomentum adhering 

 beneath ; hairs, 1^ inch long, cylindrical, tapering, excessively fine towards 

 top, straight and lax, shining as if varnished, regularly jointed, 6 joints to 

 1 line, semi-bulbous at base ; stipes and rhachises dark-brown below, shining 

 as if varnished, and thickly muricated throughout to apices of pinnae with 



* This habit, however (so widely different from that of C. dealbata), makes it a very 

 difficult matter to lay out and dry a specimen flat ; indeed, I have been obliged to abandon 

 it, save in a few small segments, although I took with me into the forest a portfolio having 

 remarkably thick covers. 



