88 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



est tree fern known is Alsophila excelsa a nearly ex- 

 tinct species occurring upon Norfolk Island to the east 

 of Australia whose trunks John Smith has stated to 

 measure from 60 to 80 feet in length. Scarcely infer- 

 ior to this is A. Macarthuri found upon Lord Howe's 

 Island which, according to Maiden attains a height of 

 from 60 to 70 feet. ' Among American species, the 

 nearest approach to these dimensions of length is 

 found, perhaps, in Alsophila armata which Jenman 

 records as sometimes reaching fifty feet in Jamaica, 

 "the head gradually diminishing in size as the stem 

 lengthens." 



The smallest member of the family in the world is 

 Alsophila Kuhnii recently described from the Cordil- 

 lera of Colombia in w'hich the short rootstock is erect 

 and the leaves, including the leafstalks, are but 8 inches 

 long and the blades less than 1% inches broad. The 

 smallest of the North American species is the Jamaica 

 Cyathea NockU looking most like some coarse bipin- 

 nate wood fern, its relatively stoutish stem 4 to 8 

 inches lone, prostrate upon the ground and rooting un- 

 derneath, its fronds 1 to ?> T / 2 feet long borne in a 

 crown. 



The leaves of the Cyatheae vary in length from one 

 to fifteen feet. In position they have been mentioned 

 as arching in a semi-erect crown, spreading or even 

 drooping. In many species of Cyathea and Alsophila 

 and less commonly of Hemitelia, the trunks are nore 

 or less completely covered with spines, a fact which no 

 one who has reached out 'hastily and grasped one in a 

 futile attempt to stay his descent down some steep, slip- 

 pery, forest-clad slope is likely to deny. As a rule, how- 

 ever, the trunks are spiny simply from the partial per- 



