DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 47 



hairy above. Pinnae long and rather crowded together. Secondary pinnae broad in 

 proportion to their length, and cut down nearly to the costae, into pointed pinnules or 

 segments, the lowest of which are stalked, and the rest broadly sessile. The edges 

 are almost entire, or only very slightly indented into tooth-like or sub-falcate lobes, 

 towards their points. There are a few small hairs on the upper surface of the 

 pinnules. Colour bright green above, blueish green below. The sori are few in 

 number, and very neatly arranged in two rows on either side of the midrib of the 

 pinnule, but mostly towards its base, as shown in enlarged pinnule. They are small, 

 and almost black ; so that they show very distinctly on the light under-surface 

 of the pinnae. The texture is very thin and soft. When first growing up in spring, 

 the young fronds are very conspicuous, from their fresh bright green colour, which at 

 once distinguishes them from the dull brown ones of Cyathea dealbata, with which they 

 generally grow ; for though the stipes and rachis are at this time clothed with brown 

 hairs or scales, there are not enough of them to hide the green. This plant usually 

 occurs in rather light bush, and generally towards the bottoms of gullies. It is easy 

 to cultivate : and very effeftive from its bright soft green, which is particularly bright 

 in young plants. Near Dunedin, examples of this fern with branched caudices are 

 common. One on Mount Cargill has sixteen branches. The scalv form called at 

 Wellington Cyathea Cunninghamii is also common in Otago. The other form, which 

 prevails in the north of the Colony, but which I met with also in the Mangawhero 

 Valley, north of Cook's Strait, has a shorter stouter caudex, and much larger and 

 blunter fronds, sometimes nine feet long. The stipes and rachis are much rougher 

 and hairier below, but like those of the other plant above, and they are far 

 darker in colour. When they first appear, they are thickly covered with very long 

 chocolate-coloured hairs, and though most of these soon drop off, a good many still 

 remain at the bases of the stipites. The pinnules are cut right down to th*e costae, 

 the lowest being stalked and the rest sessile. Their texture is harsher, as well as far 

 darker, and their edges are deeply indented into rounded lobes, which become tooth- 

 like towards the points, and bend over towards the sori. See enlarged pinnule. The 

 sori are far more numerous, often extending over more than two-thirds of the length of 

 the pinnules ; and when the cup-like involucres open, the receptacle is seen to be very 

 distinctly stalked or narrowed below. This plant seems to grow only in heavy bush, 

 and occurs on flat land at Mangawhero. The fern found by Mr. Colenso between 

 Norsewood and Dannevirke, and which he named " Hemitelia stellulata," appears to 

 to be this last plant (at all events, the Mangawhero form of it), with a paler under- 

 surface, stippled with white dots. 



GENUS ALSOPHILA. (Al-soph-il-a.) 

 From alsos, a forest, and phileo, I love. Has the sori globose and dorsal on 



