99 FILICES. [ Dicksonia, 
pinnate, thick and ceriaceous but hardly rigid, yellowish-green above, 
paler beneath. Stipes from half as long to as long as the frond, pale, 
smooth, clothed at the base with long purplish-brown or yellowish-brown 
fibrillose scales, when young more or less covered (together with the 
rhachis and costae) with soft woolly deciduous hairs, almost glabrous when 
mature. Primary pinnae 6—-121in. long, 2-4in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, 
acuminate; secondary 1-3in. long, 3-31in. broad, pinnate or pinnatifid. 
Segments or pinnules rather closely set, shghtly faleate; barren oblong 
or ovate, obtusely or acutely toothed or lobulate; fertile smaller and 
narrower, deeply pinnatifid. Sori copious, 6-12 to a segment or 1 to 
each lobule—Hook. Sp. Fal. 1 (1846) 59, t. 28c; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii 
(1855) 10; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 351; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fa. (1873) 
461; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 31; Field N.Z. Ferns (1890) 53, t. 11, 
f. Ja, lB, lo; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 954. D. laevis Heward ex 
Sp. Fil. i (1846) 69. 
At Whangarei, Bay of Islands, and other northern localities this usually produces 
a short stout trunk, but to the south of Auckland it is invariably stemless. Possibly 
there may be two distinct varieties with a different geographical range, but so far I 
have failed to find distinctive characters to separate them. 
NortH Istanp: Hilly forests from Mangonui to Cook Strait, not common. 
South Isuanp: Nelson—Massacre Bay, Travers; Pakawau, Kingsley! Westland— 
Okarito, A. Hamilton! Franz Josef Glacier, Cockayne / Canterbury—Banks Peninsula, 
Armstrong. Sea-level to 2000 ft. 
5. CYATEEA Smith. 
Tree-ferns, the New Zealand species with a trunk or caudex varying 
from 10-50 ft. or even more. Fronds very large, usually 2-3-pinnate, 
very rarely (in species not found in New Zealand) pinnate or undivided. 
Stipes often muricate or aculeate. Sori dorsal, globose, situated upon a 
vein or at the fork of a vein; receptacle elevated, globose or elongated. 
Indusium globose, at first covering the whole sorus, but soon bursting at 
the summit, often in an irregular manner, usually persistent as a cup 
surrounding the base of the sorus, its margin entire or laciniate. Sporangia 
numerous, sessile or nearly so, often mixed with jointed hairs, bursting 
transversely ; ring somewhat oblique, usually complete. 
A large and beautiful genus of over 150 species, most plentiful in damp tropical or 
subtropical regions, unknown in the North Temperate Zone. It attains its southern 
limit in New Zealand. Of the 4 species found therein, 2 appear to be endemic; the 
remaining 2 extend to Australia or the Pacific islands. 
* Under-surface of frond white. 
Trunk 10-30 ft. Fronds 6-12 ft. ; stipes and rhachis clothed with 
yellowish-brown deciduous tomentum is . 1. C. dealbata. 
** Under-surface of frond green. 
Trunk 20-50 ft. Fronds 8-20 ft., coriaceous ; stipes and rhachis 
conspicuously muricate beneath. Fertile segments lobulate or | 
pinnatifid re ys re io - .. 2. OC. medullaris. 
Trunk slender, 20-50 ft. Fronds 8-20 ft., submembranous ; stipes 
and rhachis only slightly asperous. Divisions of frond with 
attenuated points wa * o We - 
Trunk stout, 8-12 ft. Fronds 8-15 ft. ; stipes and rhachis with 
hard tubercles. Divisions of frond not drawn out into attenu- 
ated points “Ve 4. fe, oe 3 .. 4 6. Milner. 
‘Trunk 8-20 ft. Fronds 6-10 ft., almost membranous ; stipes and 
rhachis slightly asperous, clothed with strigose hairs above. i 
Tertile segments lobulate or pinnatifid ms yh .. & CO. Cunninghami. 
3. O. Kermadecensis. - 
