44 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



such soils elsewhere. It is likely that other varieties of this fern occur in other places 

 as " Cyathea Milnei " of the Kermadec Islands appears only to differ in having the 

 pinnules broader in proportion to their length, and their being toothed instead of lobed, 

 and this towards the tips only, and its having smaller sori. 



CYATHEA CUNNINGHAMII. (Si-a-the-a Cun-ning-ham-e-i.) 



PLATE IX., Nos. 1 and 2. 



So called after Mr. Cunningham, the naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook, 

 and who first described the fern, which is confined to New Zealand. There are 

 certainly two, if not three, distinft plants called by this name in different parts of the 

 Colony, and as Mr. Cunningham was in various parts and his description would apply 

 to either plant, it is impossible to say with certainty which one he really meant. I 

 will therefore describe them separately. First, there is the usual form found near 

 Auckland, and all over that portion of the Colony, and which I think is the true plant. 

 This has a slender caudex not exceeding twenty feet high and scarcely if at all thicker 

 than a man's forearm, and may be distinguished at once by the number of stipites and 

 rachides of old fronds hanging round it, below the crown. These are slender, black 

 or nearly so in colour, and in withering, shrivel and become bent and twisted in all 

 directions, so that they intertwine into a network. The living fronds are from six to 

 nine feet long, broadly lanceolate and pointed. Stipes short, dark brown or black, 

 tubercled, hairy, scaly below, and velvety above. Rachis and costae brown, slightly 

 velvety and hairy below, with a few long narrow scales at the sides, and very velvety 

 abovie. Pinnae long and narrow, stalked. Secondary pinnae shortly stalked. Pinnules 

 narrow in proportion to their length, and very deeply cut into rounded lobes which 

 curl over. Texture thin yet harsh. The lower pinnules are stalked, but the rest 

 broadly sessile. Both surfaces hairless. Sori brown, usually one to each lobe. In 

 some plants the pinnules are not lobed but are narrowed for the greater portion of 

 their length, and then widen out into tooth-like or sub-falcate lobes. Enlarged 

 pinnules of both forms are shewn on the plate. Both forms sometimes occur on the 

 same plant and even on the same frond. The Wellington plant has a much stouter 

 caudex, and the old stipites and rachides hanging below the crown are light brown and 

 straight. The fronds are shorter. The pinnae are broader in proportion to their length 

 and often narrow towards the ends so as to terminate in a sort of tail. The pinnules 

 are cut into tooth-like or sub-falcate lobes, and are soft in texture. An enlarged pin- 

 nule is shewn on the plate. In other respefts the plants correspond, yet it seems to 

 me that the latter one approximates far more closely to Hemitelia Smithii than to 

 the Auckland plant. In fact, till the two are carefully compared it and Hemitelia 

 Smithii may be mistaken for each other. Neither form occurs at Nelson, but one. 



