20 Classification and Description 
colour, light green. Pinnules ; primaries , oblong-lanceolate, 
acuminate, sub-acute, broadest at base, petiolate, alternate : 
secondaries , oblong-lanceolate, acute, slightly approximate, 
deeply pionatifid, petiolate, alternate : lobes,- oblong-ovate, 
somewhat falcate, acute, bi-trifid, serrate, sessile, alternate, 
decurrent, revolute, glabrous ; lowermost, sub-petiolate ; 
veins, pellucid. Sort, sub-marginal, mostly four on a lobe, 
bifariously disposed. Involucre, inflated, entire or slightly 
uneven. R-achis , Stipe, Petioles, and Ribs, densely tomen- 
tose ; Rackis and Stipe, channelled ; Stipe, 1 — 2 feet. 
Caudex, erect, bulky, 12 — 18 feet high. Cortice, fibrous, 
dry, and enormously thick. 
Hab. In rich alluvial soil, on the banks of rivers, in Te 
Waiiti district ; January, 1842. 
Obs. This fine arborescent Fern attains in its native forests 
to the height of eighteen feet. In affinity it approaches very 
near to D. squarrosa, Sw> ; from which species, however, it 
may, even at a distance, be readily distinguished ; its trunk 
not being studded with broken-off and decayed petioles, as 
in that species, but, on the contrary, thickly covered with 
fibres, which resemble those of the fibrous interior of the 
husk of the cocoa-nut. This fibrous epidermis increases in 
thickness with the age of the plant ; and, in time, causes it 
to appear unusually bulky. Some trees were noticed from 
fourteen to sixteen inches in diameter. The natives cut away 
the fibrous, outside in thick slices, which they use for many 
purposes in the construction of their dwelling-houses, and, 
especially, their stores for food. Being easier cut by them 
than wood, a peice resembling a small plank may speedily be 
obtained. It is also found much more effectual than such 
timber as they with their limited means could cut, for ex- 
cluding of rats and mice ; as these animals cannot gnaw 
through this dry fibrous substance so readily as through wood. 
Its living fronds are few in number, spreading, and deciduous. 
When dead they remain, hanging for a long while thickly around 
