52 DESCRIPTIONS OF N.Z. FERNS. 



and rather darker brown above. The fronds are long ovate-lanceolate, sometimes 

 rather bluntly so at the ends. They are from 6ft. to loft. long, and far narrower in 

 proportion to their length than those of D. squarrosa. The lower pinnae also taper 

 away very much, and are comparatively little deflexed. The pinnae are rather crowded, 

 long and narrow, and often lengthened into a sort of tail. The secondary pinnae are 

 short and tapering, particularly towards their tips. Their costae are very slender, and 

 the pinnules small and set well apart from each other. A considerable proportion of 

 the pinnules are distinctly stalked (quite half of them on the lower pinnae), and the 

 rest only narrowly sessile. The edges are indented into rounded lobes^ but not so 

 deeply so as those of D. squarrosa, and these lobes curl over, so as partially to cover 

 the sori, which are small, and one to each lobe. The texture is harsh. 



The sori burst open transversely, and, like those of D. squarrosa, the pinnae are 

 soriferous to their very tips. The colour of the pinnules is usually dark green above 

 and lighter green below ; but these colours get lighter in exposed situations. A stunted 

 form found at high levels, particularly in the Middle Island, has the fronds of a bright 

 golden brown colour, which they retain in cultivation in exposed situations, where they 

 stand better than the ordinary kind, which only grows in damp places and usually in 

 high bush. If the bush is cleared, so as to let sun and wind get to the soil and 

 caudices, the ferns soon dwindle and die ; yet young plants grow well without much 

 shelter ; and when so grown are hardy. This is, therefore, one of the best ferns to 

 plant in a garden, as sun and wind will not hurt the crown, provided the caudex is a 

 little sheltered at the bottom ; but it will not be wise to remove the dead fronds. I 

 have seen it stated that the Maoris cut slabs out of the caudices of this fern, and used 

 them for building purposes ; but I doubt it, as the fibrous portion is too soft for such 

 a purpose ; at any rate, in the central parts of the Colony. It was, no doubt, the 

 fibrous part of Cyathea Medullaris which was so used. This fern is also called 

 " D. intermedia," and was classed by Dr. Hooker as " D. antarctica" ; but the Tasmanian 

 fern so called has a harsher caudex, broader fronds, and larger sori. The Chatham 

 Island fern, however, approximates so closely to D. antarctica as to make it very 

 doubtful whether Dr. Hooker was not right. From a statement made by Mr. J. B. 

 Armstrong, of Christchurch, in the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," 

 Vol. XIII., p. 360, the Tasmanian plant appears to grow far more rapidly. He says it 

 " is the fastest-growing tree-fern we have yet experimented with. Plants only seven 

 and a-half years old from spores have made trunks varying from three inches to ten 

 inches high, and three inches to four inches through. It is, therefore, likely that the 

 rapidity of the growth of the tree-fern stems has been very much under-estimated by 

 most writers on ferns." I, on the other hand, have plants of D. fibrosa at least 

 twenty years old which show no sign of a caudex, and my only example which has one 

 had it when I brought home the fern fully fifteen years ago, and it has not increased in 



