TODEA. 



355 



known (Fig. 101). Although gathered by Forster in New Zealand, during 

 Captain Cook's voyage, it appears to have remained unknown to any 

 other botanist until the Rev. W. Colenso detected it, in 1838, on the 

 Tongarou Mountain, and again in 1841 on the mountain range near 

 Waikare Lake, where it was growing luxuriantly in decomposed leaf- soil. 

 It is said to inhabit principally the dells of the shaded forests of the 

 Northern Island, New Zealand : there the specimen in Hooker's Herbarium 

 was gathered by Forster, to whom, as truly remarks Sir W. J. Hooker, 

 the discovery of this beautiful plant is really due. 



T. superba does not form a stem, but produces a somewhat erect, 

 fibrous trunk, of a woody nature in the interior, reaching at the most 

 l£ft. in height. Its handsome fronds, 2ft. to 4ft. long and 6in. to lOin. 

 broad, are borne on firm, erect stalks 2in. to Sin. long; they are 

 tripinnatifid (divided three times nearly to the midrib), and their narrow, 

 spear-shaped leaflets are closely set, the central ones being 4in. to Sin. 

 long and the lower ones gradually reduced. The leafits are divided into 

 simple or forked, linear segments, and the stalks of the leaflets are densely 

 woolly underneath.— Hooker, Icones Plantarum, t. 910 ; Second Century of 

 Ferns, t. 10. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, iv., p. 50. 



T. Yromii— Vrom'-i-i (Vrom's). A variety of T. barbara. 



T. (LeptopteHs) Wilkesiana— Lep-top'-ter-is ; Wilkes-i-a'-na (Wilkes'), 

 Brackenridge. 



This beautiful and very rare, miniature Tree Fern, native of Fiji and 

 the New Hebrides, was first discovered by a botanist attached to the 

 United States Exploring Expedition in Ovolau, one of the Fiji Islands, 

 where it was found growing in humid mountain forests. It is closely 

 allied to T. Fraseri, but is of larger growth, with an arborescent habit, 

 and has the lower leaflets distinct and deflexed and the stalk of a more 

 •or less hairy nature. Mr. Baker classes it as a variety of T. Fraseri, but 

 the two plants are sufficiently distinct for all garden purposes. 



Mr. Brackenridge describes the trunk as being from 18in. to 20in. 

 high and ljin. in diameter, scaly towards the top, and producing near the 

 base black, wiry roots about the thickness of a crow-quill, the surface of 



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