7 



tween, sessile, very deeply pinnatifid or the lower ones fully pinnate at their base, the apices shortly 

 acuminate and serrulate, 3-3£ in. 1. 6-7 li. w. segments flat, close, barely curved, the point rounded and 

 serrulate, 3-4 li. 1. 1^ li. w.; veins once forked from the middle, or simple : sori at or below the forking 

 ascending A,-§ up the the segments ; involucres fragile, hemispherical, breaking down irregularly 

 calyciform. 



Very common in forests and on wayside banks from 4,000-6,000 ft. alt. The trunk is comparatively 

 slender, but attains occasionally a height of 40 or more ft. and is sometimes, though but rarely, 

 branched, bearing two or three heads. Its much taller trunk, copious meal-coloured vestiture of the 

 costules and ribs, few palo fibrils scattered over the dull surfaces, and brighter ferruginous scales of the 

 crown distinguish it at sight from its allies. The bolt at 5,000 alt. aoomo to bo its chief habitat 

 though it extends equally, in diminishing quantity, both above and below that line. 



14. C. monstrabella, Jenm. — Stem-2-3 in. thick, reaching 4 or more feet high, freely clothed at 

 the top with castaneous scales ; stipites I- If ft. 1. chestnut brown at the base but straw coloured higher 

 densely armed throughout with short straight bluntish spines, and at the base with linear-acuminate 

 scales like those of the caudex ; fronds spreading, 3-4 ft. 1. 1^-1$ ft. w. bitripinnate, chartaceous dark 

 green above, sub-pruinose beneath, rachis prickly or asperous at the base, bright stramineous, pale 

 pubescent down the face as are the costs) and costulae, the costae furnished beneath with small narrow 

 scattered brownish scales, the costulae with minute bullate like-coloured ones ; pinnae subdistant, nearly 

 or the upper, quite sessile, f-1 ft. 1. 4-5 in. w. the apex lobate ; pinnulae with their own width between 

 or subdistant, sessile, rounded and subentire at the base, in. 1. 4-5 li. w. cut almost to the costulae 

 into close blunt rounded slightly crenate lobes, which are 2. li. w. and d., veins flabellate or pinnate, 

 the venules once or twice forked ; sori situated at the forking, involucres hemispherical, very fragile, 

 breaking down calyciform, exposing the setiferous receptacles. 



Infrequent near Portland Grap, 5,000-6,000 alt. in forest, gathered twice by Nock, who describes 

 it as having at a short distance the appearance of a Marattia. I hesitate equally to let it stand or 

 remove it ; it appears evidently to be an abnormal state, but whether of a known or otherwise unknown 

 species I am unable to decide. Difference in colour and vestiture makes me hesitate in referring it to 

 either Schanschin or furfuracea, to which species it is most closely allied. There is a tendency to tassel- 

 ing in the fronds, for the upper pinna) are forked from the base, the divisions being of equal length, a 

 tendency that is also exhibited on the superior side by some of the lowest pinnulae. These are often 

 fully pinnate, and the segments oblong, characteristics no doubt of the normal state. 



15. C. conqaisita, Jenm. — Stem reaching several ft. high, stout, paleaceous above ; fronds erect 

 spreading, 5-6 ft. 1. dark dull green above, beneath greyish, coriaceous, naked generally but with a few 

 minute scales scattered on the ribs of the underside, both rachises and costae castaneous and clothed 

 above with a richly tinted chestnut pubescence ; pinnae approximate, 6-8 in. 1. 1-1|- in., w. quite sessile, 

 acuminate, fully pinnate at the base ; segments linear-oblong, rounded at the apex and finely serrulate 

 f in. 1. 2 li. w. spreading horizontally (not curved) in the lower half of the pinnae where they are con- 

 stricted at the base and open, with half their own width between, those above slightly dilated and con- 

 nected with a sharp sinus between ; veins once forked, the line of sori on each side rather nearer the 



midrib than margin; involucres thin and fragile, breaking down irregularly calyciform. Wilson, n. 



134, in J. Smith's ferns, Herb. Brit. Museum. Wilson's label says : — " A large growing tree fern, 

 fronds nearly upright, and five or six feet long, stem large, quite a tree. Very different from n. 16." 

 Number 16 is the following species here given, with which this has near affinity, but is distinguished 

 by the open space that occurs between the segments at their base, whereby the inferior ones are isolated. 

 The segments are also flatter, and the lines of sori and the veins show distinctly on the upperside. 



16. C. pendula, Jenm. — Stem reaching several feet high, rather slender, scaly at the top ; fronds 

 pendent — spreading, coriaceous, dull dark green above, beneath glaucous, rachis channelled, and with 

 the costae clothed above with a bright castaneous pubescence, glabrous or slightly puberulous beneath, 

 surfaces elsewhere naked ; pinnae sessile, 6-9 in. 1. 1-14/ in. w. deeply pinnatifid or at the base fully 

 pinnate ; segments 6 — 8 li. 1. \\ —2 li. w, rounded and serrulate at the apex, slightly dilated at the 

 connected base, the sinus between being narrow and sharp, veins once forked ; sori situated at the fork- 

 ing, forming a line near the midrib; involucres thin and fragile, castaneous, breaking down calyciform. 

 Wilson n. 16, J. Smith's ferns, Brit. Mus. Herb. No locality is given on the label, which says ; "A 

 tree fern, 8-10 ft. high, stem about the size of a man's wrist or smaller, fronds at the top only, which 

 hang all round, hence its creole name, " Parasol Fern." Very different from 134. This and the pre- 

 ceding are only ktiown from Wilson's specimens in the British Museum, which are insufficient to show 

 whether they are simply bipinnate or tripinnate species, the former of which is inferred in the fore- 

 going descriptions from the fact of the rachises hping oLannollocL. Tkoy « ^ium tu bo vum^aiea with 

 JZemitclia Sherringii, with which, speaking from memory of the specimens, their alliance seems to be. 



