Cyathea. | FILICES. 25 
Fronds numerous, 20-30, 6-10 ft. long, 2-4 ft. broad, 2-3-pinnate, sub- 
coriaceous or almost: membranous, flaccid, dark-green above, paler beneath. 
Stipes rather slender, dark-coloured at the very base, and furnished with 
numerous linear scales, elsewhere pale, and together with the rhachis slightly 
tubercled, more or less covered, especially on the upper surface, with pale 
yellowish-brown woolly or strigose tomentum. Primary pinnae 1--2 ft, 
long, 4-6 in. broad, cblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary 2-4 in. long, 
about ¢ in. broad, linear-oblong, acuminate, deeply pinnatifid above, pinnate 
below. Segments or pinnules 4-4 in. long, linear, obtuse, regularly lobulate 
or pinnatifid; lobules entire; veins forked. Sori copious, one to each 
lobe of the pinnule, rather nearer the costa than the margin. Indusium 
brown, membranous, at first covering the sorus, splitting up very irregularly, 
sometimes leaving an unequal-sided cup with lacerate edges, at other times 
a single lobe on one side as in Hemitelia.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii (1855) 7; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 350; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. (1873) 25; 
Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 29; Field N.Z. Ferns (1890) 44, t. 9, f. 1, 2: 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 950. ramer yt . 
Nortu istanp: Auckland—Mongonui County, H. Carse/ Bay of Islands, Cunning- 
. ham, Miss Clarke! Whangarei, T. F. C.; Great Barrier Island, 7. Kirk; Waitakerei 
-and Hunua, 7. F. C. Weillington—Hutt Valley, Ralph, Buchanan. Souru Isuanp : 
Nelson—Bateman’s Gully, D. Grant! Motupiko, H. H. Allan! Westland — Wilberg 
) Range, Cockayne. Canterbury—Mount Peal, H. H. Allan! CuarHam ISLANDS: 
© Hf. H. Travers! Miss Seddon ! Sea-level to 1500 ft. 
Best distinguished from C’. medullaris, to which it is closely allied, by the smaller 
size, more membranous fronds, paler and much less muricate stipes and rhachis, which 
are more or less clothed with yellowish strigose hairs, and by the smaller segments 
and sori. 
6. HEMITELIA R. Br. 
Tree-ferns, not distinguishable in habit from Cyathea. Fronds large, 
usually 2-3-pinnate, rarely pinnate. Stipes smooth or asperous or muricate. 
Veins pinnately forked; veinlets free, or the lower ones more or less 
anastomosing Just above the costa. Sori dorsal, globose, situated upon a 
vein or veinlet ; receptacle elevated, globose or elongated. Indusium never 
covering the sorus, very variable in size and shape, usually a half cup- 
shaped or semicircular scale on the lower side of the sorus, sometimes 
small and indistinct, often deciduous. Sporangia numerous, sessile or nearly 
so, bursting transversely ; ring somewhat oblique, complete. 
A tropical or subtropical genus, containing about 50 species, 30 of which are 
natives of America, the remainder scattered through the warm regions of the Old 
World. It only differs from Cyathea in the small one-sided involucre, and several species 
might be referred to either genus. The single species found in New Zealand is endemic. 
Mey 
' i” 
1, H. Smithii Hook. ex Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. (1873) 81.—Trunk 6-25 it. 
high, about 9 in. diam., coated with fibrous aerial rootlets below, clothed 
towards the top with the pendulous withered rhachides of the old fronds. 
Fronds numerous, horizontally spreading, 5-9 ft. long, bipinnate, lanceolate 
or oblong-lanceolate, acute but hardly acuminate, thin and membranous, 
bright fresh-green. Stipes slender, clothed at the base with a dense brush 
of long shining chestnut-brown subulate-lanceolate scales, slightly. asperous 
beneath ; rhachis pale yellow-green, almost glabrous when old, when young 
clothed with strigillose hairs above, and with lax deciduous scales beneath. 
Primary pinnae 9-I5in. long, 3-4 in. broad, linear-oblong, acuminate ; 
