350 
I. FILICES. 
\Oyathea. 
Kermadec Islands, Macgillivray. This I took for C. medullaris in the account of Ker- 
madec Island plants, published in the Linnsean Journal, Bot. i. 128. Trunk 20-30 ft. high, 
9 in. diam. 
4. C. Cunninghamii, Hook. f. FI. N. Z. ii. 7. Trunk 12-20 ft. 
high, fibrous at the base and for 5 ft. up, covered with the persistent bases of 
the fronds. Fronds 20-30 in a crown, 6-9 ft. long, erecto-patent, flaccid, 
3-pinnate, acuminate ; stipes and rachis slightly warted, pale-coloured, pubes- 
cent and scaly as in C. medullaris ; costa strigose above ; rachis with linear, 
warty scars on each side ; pinnules sessile, linear, pinnatifid, ^ in. long, ~ — i- 
broad ; segments rounded, quite glabrous. Sori numerous ; involucres vari- 
ously torn, sometimes irregularly from the top, at others from the base on one 
side, turning over and forming a shallow cup, as in C. SmitJiii. — Hook. Ic. PI. 
t. 9S5. 
Northern Island: Bay of Islands, Cunningham , etc.; east coast and interior, Colenso ; 
Auckland, Sinclair; Port Nicholson, in dense forests, Ralphs. Very similar to C. medul- 
laris, and perhaps only a variety of it, hut a much more delicate and flaccid plant, with 
smaller pinnules and sori, and the rachis above usually covered with long brown hairs. 
5. C. Smithii, HooJc.f. FI. N. Z. i. 8. t. 72. Trunk 20 ft. high, covered 
with the ragged naked stipites of the old fronds, densely fibrous at the base. 
Fronds 8-9 ft. long, lanceolate, not acuminate, 2-pinnate, bright pale green; 
stipes stout, dark-coloured, covered at the base with stiff, subulate, dark- 
brown scales 1-lf in. long ; rachis pale-coloured, quite glabrous and smooth, 
except toward the ends of the segments, where these and the costa are strigose 
above ; primary divisions 12-15 in. long, 4-5 broad, glabrous above except 
the rachis and costa, pale beneath, secondary 2-2J in. long, pinnate below, 
pinnatifid above ; pinnules linear-oblong, acute, falcate, coarsely toothed. 
Sori on the forks of the veins ; involucre bursting from the base on one side, 
turning over and forming a shallow cup. 
Northern Island : mountainous districts in the east coast and interior, Colenso ; Welling- 
ton, Sinclair, Ralphs, usually near streams. Middle Island : apparently common throughout. 
The most common species at Otago ; trunk hard, close-grained, heavy, Buchanan. Mr. 
Ealphs observes that the young involucre never covers the sorus, and that this is hence a true 
Hemitelia, from which, however, it differs in habit and the narrow pinnules. 
3. ALSOPHILA, Br. 
Generally Tree-ferns. — Fronds very large, 2- or 3-pinnate. Sori distant 
from the margin, differing from those of Cyathea only in the absence of an 
involucre. 
A large tropical genus, extending into Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand ; dis- 
tinguished from Polypodium, by its usually arboreous habit and tumid receptacle. 
1. A. Colensoi, Hook. f. FI. N. Z. ii. 8. t. 73. Trunk 4-5 ft. high 
(according to Colenso sometimes absent) ; young parts covered with lax ful- 
vous or red-brown hairs, and tumid, fimbriate, membranous scales, covering a 
minute stellate pubescence. Fronds 2-4 ft. long, 2-pinnate ; stipes clothed 
at the base with long subulate white scales ■§— | in. long ; rachis weak ; pri- 
mary divisions 1 ft. long, 4 in. broad, lanceolate, acuminate ; pinnules l|-2 
in. long, acuminate, deeply cut into oblong, obtuse, and obtusely-toothed 
lobules. Sori numerous, prominent, on the middle of the veins. 
