Richmond
April 21 /79
My dear Baron,
I think that I have at last solved the mystery about
Alsophila
Cooperi
.
A few days since I visited a spot at the Kurrajong,
called "Cabbage Tree Hollow", & found growing together
, Alsophia Cooperi, & A. Leichhardtiana.
I send you some specimens of two Alsophilas to compare with the typical
A. australis
.
A. Cooperi
sometimes attains a height 18 or 20 feet with a circumference of only 8 or 9 inches.
The caudex is not nearly so stout as that of
A. Australis
, nor are the fronds so large or so numerous. It is well marked, as Sir W. Macarthur
observed in the specimens from Illawarra, by the pale, oval scars, a few inches in
length & breadth, caused by the falling off of the old fronds, which distinguishes
it from the allied species. The fronds are not so firm in texture as those of
A. australis
, & the veins are generally once forked as in A.
Leichhardtiana
, whilst the sori are much larger, & eventually covering nearly the under surface.
The chaffy scales, intermixed with dark brown setaceous ones, which clothe the rachis
of the younger fronds & the bases of the raches generally, are similar to those of
A. excelsa
, & the segments of the pinnules are slighly serrated. The rachis is nearly smooth,
not muricated as those of A.
australis
&
A.
Leichhardtiana
. (I send specimens of frond & scales: I wish I could send a piece of the caudex.)
A. Leichhardtiana
is a slender species with a dark coloured caudex, the frond in falling leaving the
base of the rachis, but not so much of it as
A. australis
. It seldom attains 15 feet, & differs from the others in the dark purple colour of
the rachis, the lanceolate-oblong, somewhat falcate form of the segments, which are
sharply serrated, especially at the apex, the veins once forked & the sori small,
five or six on each side of the midrib, about the middle of the segment. The base
of the rachis is covered with long light brown setaceous hairs. (I enclose some).
A. Cooperi
&
A. Leichhardtiana
are not glaucous in the under surface of the frond, & their slender habit alone distinguishes
them from A.
excelsa
& A.
Australis
.
Hoping this will satisfy you & also Mr Bentham (?)
Yours very sincerely
W. Woolls
P.S.
I send a frond of
A. excelsa
for comparison. The
veins
are
much more forked
I send the fronds by this post. I will write when I receive the lithograms
