polypodiace^:. 27 



Named from the cup-shaped figure of the indusium. This 

 genus contains the celebrated " Tree Fern/' so often met with 

 in the tropics, and described by travellers. An extract from 

 Mr. Gosse's work on Jamaica, where he graphically de- 

 scribes these plants, may not be out of place here, although 

 the species referred to is only cultivated in this country in 

 the stove. Mr. Gosse says : — " I will mention one more 

 member of this tribe, a Tree Fern of peculiar beauty, that I 

 found growing in some abundance, in a spot of more than 

 usual gloom and grandeur, far on towards Eotherwood. 

 The species was, I believe, Cyathea arhorea, taller and more 

 graceful than the AlsqpMla of the mountain brow. The 

 slender stems, each marked with its oval scale-like scars, and 

 throwing out from its summit its swelling cluster of leaf- 

 bases, so compact and so regular, as to look like the ele- 

 gantly fluted knot of some cast-iron pillar, again constricted 

 before they spread abroad in a wide umbrella of finely-cut 

 foliage, had an imposing effect here in the rather open 

 woods, surrounded by the naked, irregular trunks (moss- 

 grown, and studded with parasites) of the tall trees that 

 towered up, and interwove their branches far above their 

 heads, shutting out the sun, and almost the light." C. me- 

 dullaris and dealbata, both Tree Ferns of New Zealand, can 



