[ 1588 ]
r /.
CYATHEA dentata.
Toothed Cup-fern.
CRYPTOGAMIA Filices.
Gen. Ghar. Fructifications scattered, roundish, growing
out of an hemispherical calyx, which bursts at the
top without a cover. '
Spec. Char. Frond bipinnate: its leaflets ovate, obtuse,
deeply and bluntly toothed, pointless.
Syn. Cyathea dentata. Sm. F I . B r i t . 1141.
Polypodium dentatum. D ic k s . Crypt, fa s c . 3. 1. t. 7.
f . 1. H . S ic c .fa s c . 5. 16. W i th . 776. H u ll. 238.
F o u n d only in the clefts of alpine rocks on the highest
mountains of Scotland and Wales. Our specimen was communicated
by the Rev. H. Davies from the last mentioned
country. It grows at the foot of the walls of Castle Dinas
B ran , Flintshire. Mr. Griffith has sent us fine specimens
from Snowdon. In July it is in perfection.
This is generally smaller than the C. f r a g i l is , and the frond
less compound, being sometimes scarcely bipinnate. The
specimen in our plate exhibits its most perfect form, which is
bipinnate; the leaflets ovate, obtuse, very deeply but bluntly
toothed, the teeth and termination quite destitute of any point
or bristle. The main nerve of each leaflet is zigzag. The
common stalk is winged towards the top only. Its base is
mostly smooth, sometimes shaggy. Dots of fructification
large, and soon becoming entirely confluent'.
Some differences of opinion have arisen among botanists on
the continent concerning my genus of Cyathea, for want, as I
apprehend, of their being acquainted with all the species, in
their different states, which form a chain from C. arlorea to
these small ones. The character consists in the calyx or in-
volucrum, whether of 1 piece or of many, going entirely under
the globular receptacle to which the capsules are fixed.