CHAPTER VIIL. 



CYATHEA, /. Smith. 

 (Cy-ath'-e-a.) 



BOUT eighty species are embraced in this genus, which is 

 an important division of the tribe CyathecB, and which derives 

 its name from kyatheion, a little cup, in reference to the 

 appearance of the spores on the back of the fronds. It forms 

 Genus 4 in Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis Filicum," and is 

 composed entirely of plants from tropical and sub-tropical regions. Thus, 

 while a dozen or so may be termed "Indian" species, coming from India, 

 including Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula and Islands, a similar number are 

 known to be natives of Tropical and Sub-tropical Africa, including the 

 adjacent islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, Bourbon, the Seychelles, &c. ; another 

 dozen or so are indigenous in Austraha, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, 

 the habitats" of some of the latter occasionally extending to the Malay 

 Archipelago and Peninsula : the greatest portion of the genus, however, 

 includes plants native of Tropical America. The majority of Cyatheas are, 

 like the closely-allied Alsophilas and Dicksonias, highly decorative and' 

 deservedly popular Tree Ferns, extensively used for the embelhshment of our 

 conservatories and winter gardens, though some of them, on account of the 

 great similarity in their general appearance, are seldom met with outside 

 botanical gardens. 



Whether of gigantic habit or otherwise, all Cyatheas are of an arborescent 

 nature ; their trunks, which sometimes measure 40ft. and even more in height, 

 e.f/., those of C. diver gens and C. medullaris, are often aculeated (prickly), 

 rarely perfectly smooth. With the exception of the comparatively dwarf 



