DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES 
83 
either entire or toothed. Sori at the base of the segments, 
one to three pairs on each. Capsules numerous from a 
globular receptacle, involucre remaining saucer-like, with an 
irregular margin, under the mass of capsules. Stem usually 
single, but sometimes branched into two or more. 
This splendid tree fern grows generally on exposed and bare 
hillsides, but is sometimes found among small bushes, when the 
stems are longer and more slender. The young plants require 
the shelter obtainable at the rise of a water-course, but when 
fully grown they stand erect, exposed to the full sun, and not 
unlike Cycads at a distance. When in this kind of situation 
they exhibit the stout stem and short arching tomentose 
fronds shown in our figure, but when in a deep hollow or 
in shelter the fronds are more upright in habit and nearly 
glabrous. Many stems of this fern have been exported to 
Europe and travel well, but it requires very careful treatment 
to keep an old stem healthy for many years after it is trans- 
planted from its native damp uplands down to the drier 
country below. It is easily cultivated if begun small, but 
if lifted when fully grown generally lives but one year. The 
small seedling plants very much resemble the ordinary British 
form of Nephrodium filix-mas , and the fronds are much less 
cut than in mature plants. Age and exposure continue to 
make much variation in the cutting of the frond and amount 
of tomentum present. I feel satisfied that this has led to too 
many species being described, and that if C. Manniana Hk. 
and C. Thomsoni (Baker, Jour. Bot. 1881, 180) are distinct 
from C. Dregei, they have not yet been found south of the 
Zambesi. Swynnerton’s list includes all three, as also does 
Eyles’ list (from the same specimens), but I have examined 
these specimens, and cannot agree that they differ from the 
usual forms. The description in Syn. Fil. of C. Dregei “frond 
bipinnate, pinnules deeply pinnatifid ” is misleading, though it 
does occur under certain conditions, for the more usual con- 
dition is 3-pinnate. Forms of C. Dregei occur together in 
Natal which are evidently but indescribably different, probably 
through age or food supply. 
Cyathea Burkei Hk. seems to be the same thing grown 
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