Cyathea] i. — filices. 29' 



Otago, and has not apparently been gathered in the E. of Canter- 

 bury. At the Thames it ascends to 2,000 ft. The Maories still eat 

 the mucilaginous pith (from which the specific name is derived), 

 and also prepare a thick syrup from it. As the trunks are very 

 useful for house-building, fencing, road-making, &c., the plant runs 

 a great risk of being exterminated in time. In humid districts it 

 stands transplantation well, and therefore ought to be easily culti- 

 vated, if suitable means are adopted to keep the surrounding 

 atmosphere sufficiently moist. 



3. C. cunninghamii, EooL f. 



Trunk 10-15 ft. high, more or less fibrous and scarred with the 

 bases of old fronds. Fronds numerous, 6-9 ft. long, tripinnate, 

 flaccid and membranous, acuminate ; stipes and rachis pale, fur- 

 nished with scales and long brown hairs, slightly tubercled, costse 

 with short, stiff hairs ; primary pinnae 1-2 ft. long ; secondary 

 pinnae 2-5 in. long, ^-1 in. broad, oblong, acuminate, pinnatifid at 

 the apex ; segments i- in. long, linear, pinnatifid, lobes entire. Sori 

 small, solitary on each lobe ; involucre very thin, breaking down 

 very irregularly into a shallow cup, sometimes remaining as a scale- 

 on the underside (as in the genus Hemitelid). 



I foUow Sir J. T). Hooker and Baker in retaining this fern as a 

 distinct species; probably it ought to be reduced to the rank of a 

 variety of C. medullaris, from which it is, however, easily distin- 

 guished by habit and a few very unimportant characters. 



It appears to be confined to the North Island, where it ranges 

 from Bay of Islands to Cook Straits. 



Genus III.— HEMITELIA,* Br. (PI. I. fig. 3.) 



Tree-ferns. Fronds large, pinnate or decompound. Sori globose,, 

 dorsal on a vein or veinlet. Receptacle elevated. Involucre a scale 

 — often very deciduous — situated on the underside of the sorus. 



(A genus not easily distinguished from Cyathea, and intermediate 

 between it and AlsophUa.) 



^ nc^ -^^— - 1. H. smithii, Sook. 



L, Trunk 10-20 ft. high, covered with fibres, and rough with the 

 persistent bases of old fronds. Fronds 8-9 ft. long, bipinnate, bright 

 pale green ; stipes stout, clothed at the base with stifi' subulate brown 

 scales, 1-1^ in. long; rachis pale, glabrous and smooth except at the 

 tips, which — ^with the costse — are furnished with very short, stiff hairs ; 

 primary pinnae 12-15 in. long, 4-5 in. broad ; secondary pinnae 2-2^ 

 in. long, pinnate below, pinnatifid above; segments linear-oblong, 

 acute, falcate, serrate or crenate. Sori on the forks of the veins j 

 involucre hemispherical. 



* Gr. ffemiieles, half -finished, from the imperfect involucre. 



