lets, sometimes extending for several feet up the trunk, and 1–2½ ft. diam. at the foot; trunk proper rather slender for its height, black, marked with the hexagonal scars of the old stipites, and at the very top rough with the remains of the stipites. Fronds numerous, 20–30, curving, 8–20 ft. long, 3–5 ft. broad, 2–3-pinnate, coriaceous, dark-green above, paler beneath. Stipes stout, clothed at the base with copious black linear scales, and together with the rhachis more or less covered with scattered tubercles. Primary pinnæ 1½–3 ft. long, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary 4–6 in. long, ¾–1½ in. broad, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, acuminate, pinnate below, pinnatifid above, costæ more or less clothed with tawny silky hairs or glabrous. Pinnules or segments about ½ in. long, 110–18 in. broad, linear or linear-oblong, obtuse, falcate; the fertile ones deeply crenate-serrate or lobulate, sometimes pinnatifid; the barren ones broader, crenate-serrate or almost entire; costules usually with pale ciliated scales beneath. Sori very numerous, one to each lobe of the pinnule. Indusium brown, membranous, splitting into 2–4 irregular lobes.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 78; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 227; Raoul, Choix, 38; Hook. Sp. Fil. i. 26; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 7; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 349; Hook. and Bak. Syn. Fil. 25; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 28; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 42, t. 9, f. 3. C. polyneuron, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. (1879) 429. Polypodium medullare, Forst. Prodr. n. 452; Pl Escul. 74.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: From the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards, abundant, except in the east of Canterbury and Otago. Sea level to 2000 ft. Korau; Mamaku; Black Tree-fern.
Apparently the same species occurs in south-east Australia, Tasmania, and in several of the Pacific islands. Colenso's C. polyneuron, separated by him chiefly on account of the more numerous veinlets, hardly seems to be entitled to the rank of a variety. The mucilaginous pith of the trunk and lower part of the stipes was formerly baked and eaten by the Maoris, and was considered to be aa excellent article of food.
3. C. Milnei, Hook. ex Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 349.—Trunk tall, 20–40 ft. high, 1 ft. in diam. at the base. Fronds numerous, 6–18 ft. long, 2–4 ft. broad, 2–3-pinnate, not so coriaceous as in C. medullaris, dark-green above, paler beneath. Stipes stout, clothed at the base with copious linear scales, slightly asperous on the under-surface, more or less covered, as are the rhachides and costæ, with yellowish-brown deciduous wool intermixed with membranous scales. Primary pinnæ 1½–2½ ft. long, 6–10 in. wide, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; secondary 3–5 in. long, about ¾ in. broad, linear-oblong, acuminate, deeply pinnatifid. Segments ⅓–½ in. long, oblong, obtuse, falcate, obscurely crenate-serrate, margins slightly recurved, under-surface often scaly-pubescent. Sori copious, rather large, nearer the costule than the margin.
