CYATHEA. 



79 



C. dealbata — de-al-ba'-ta (whitened), Swartz. 



This beautiful Fern, deservedly the most popular species of the whole 

 genus, is a native of the Northern and Middle Islands of New Zealand. 

 Although Humboldt, in his " Views of N'ature," states that Ernst DiefFenbach 

 saw, in the most northern of the three Islands of New Zealand, trunks of 

 C. dealhata rising to a height of 42jft., such specimens are very rare in 

 their native places, the plants seldom exceeding 15ft. in height. The handsome 

 fronds, which are borne on smooth, 

 or at the most slightly rough, 

 stalks, are from 5ft. to 7ft. in 

 length, of a glaucous (bluish- 

 green) colour above and very 

 glaucous or silvery beneath ; they 

 are bi- or tripinnate (twice or 

 three times divided to the midrib) 

 and somewhat spear-shaped, and 

 are divided into narrow, pointed 

 pinnules (leatits) which have their 

 sickle-shaped segments conspicu- 

 ously toothed. The recldish-brown 

 sori (spore masses), which form 

 a most interesting feature, are 

 abundant, and produce a most 

 pleasing contrast with the white 

 colour of the under -side of the 

 leaflets, to the lower half of which 

 they are sometimes confined, 

 though usually disposed midway 

 between the midvein and the 

 margin ; they are covered by roundish involucres of a thin and more or 

 less transparent nature, which break down in an u-regular manner. — Hooker, 

 Species Filicum, i., p. 27. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, i., p. 415. 

 Loioe, Ferns British and Exotic, viii., t. 58. 



When planted in a conservatory and in a somewhat elevated position, 

 a specimen of (,'. dealbata makes a very noble object, and the peculiar colour 



Fig. 75. Cyathea dealbata 



(much reduced). 



