FERXS. 



197 



C. Sookeri is a very distinct and peculiar species 

 from the forest of Singhe Rajah, Ceylon ; it is a 

 slender tree-fern with a trunk not more than an inch 

 and a half in thickness, and short hlack rough stipes, 

 surmounted hy elongate-lanceolate acuminate pinnate 

 fronds, two to three feet long by four or five inches 

 in width. 



C. imignis has large handsome finely-cut fi-onds of 

 a leathery texture, 

 glabrous, deep dark 

 green above and 

 glaucous beneath ; 

 except in the stout- 

 est parts of the 

 stipes it is quite 

 free from scales, 

 and in this parti- 

 cular differs mark- 

 edly from its allies. 

 It is a native of 

 Jamaica (where it 

 occurs on St. Cathe- 

 rine's Peak at an 

 elevation of 5,000 

 feet above sea- 

 level), Cuba, and 

 Mexico. 



C. medullaris, 

 from Xew Zealand, 

 is one of the com- 

 paratively few ferns 

 which are impor- 

 tant from a purely 

 economic stand- 

 point. Its trunk 

 attains a large size 

 and a considerable 

 height, and con- 

 tains a soft mucila- 

 ginous pulp, which 

 is largely used by 

 the Maoris as an 

 article of food. Of 



course, to obtain the pulp large trees have to be cut 

 down and destroyed. In the Winter Garden at Kew 

 there is a remarkably fine specimen of this species 

 planted out in one of the beds ; it was presented by 

 H.II.H. the late Prince Consort, in 1856 ; it has 

 twice or thrice-pinnate, dark green, leathery fronds, 

 and stout glaucous-black stipes. 



C. sinuata, a rare species from the wooded moun- 

 tains of Ceylon, is, according to Baker, if not among 

 the smaUest, certainly among the most elegant and 

 graceful of Cyathaceous plants, and the only one we 

 know -n-ith quite simple fronds. It has a slender 

 caudex-about an inch in diameter— not more than 



from two to four feet high, surmounted by a crown 

 of elongate-lanceolate wavy fronds, two to three feet 

 long and an inch to two and a half inches wide. 



Cultiiation. — The general remarks on the culti- 

 vation of Siekaonias apply equally well here. Of 

 the species mentioned, C. dealbata and medullaris do 

 thoroughly well in a cool house — any structure, in 

 fact, which is kept free from frost — the rest do better 



with stove treat- 

 ment, and require 

 more shade than 

 the two species just 

 mentioned. 



The Soodias. 



— The genusi)oorfi« 

 contains five spe- 

 cies, which are con- 

 fined to the islands 

 from Ceylon east- 

 ward to Fiji, Kew 

 Zealand, and Aus- 

 tralia. It is a near 

 ally of Woodwardia, 

 which has already 

 been treated in this 

 work. The name 

 Soodia commemo- 

 rates the services 

 to science of Samuel 

 Doody, a London 

 apothecary and 

 cryptogamic bota- 

 nist. All are cool- 

 house ferns, and 

 thrive in a mixture 

 of loam and peat; 

 shade, too, is essen- 

 tial for their suc- 

 cessful cultivation. 

 J9. aspeia has 

 erect, dark - col- 

 oured, rough stipes, 

 two to four inches long, and oblong-lanceolate pin- 

 natifid fronds, six to eighteen inches long by two to 

 four inches broad ; the texture is leathery, the colour 

 dark green, and the margins of the narrow pinnas 

 are strongly serrated. Native of temperate Australia. 

 D. blechiioides has fronds similar in colour and 

 texture to the last-named, but they differ in size, 

 being generally about fifteen inches long by about 

 six inches broad. It is, so far as is at present 

 known, confined to Xew South "Wales. 



D. caudaia, from Australia, Tasmania, and Kew 

 Zealand, has the lower half of the fronds truly pin- 

 nate, and the upper pinnatifid or entire ; the stipes 



CYiTHEA DEAIBATA. 



