170 ON REMARKABLE FERN-TREES GROWING IN TASMANIA. 
Letter from W. Archér, Esq., F.L.S., to Sir W. J. Hooxzz, 
F.R.S., &c., on Tasmanian Tree Ferns. 
[Read Nov. 19, 1863.] 
Cheshunt, Deloraine, Tasmania, 
September 22, 1863. 
My pear Siz Wirrraw,—[ fully intended to write to you a long 
letter by this post, giving you information upon various points 
which I thought might prove interesting to you. The arrival of a 
visitor, to whom I had to give up most of my leisure, has deprived 
me, however, of the time which I should have devoted to the 
letter to you. I must therefore content myself with a brief 
account of the very remarkable fern trees which grow on the 
northern side of the mountain called Cumming's Head (or more 
properly Cummings's Head), on land adjoining my estate. 
In the midst of a damp forest of gum-trees of various species, 
and among trees of the genera Pomaderris, Pittosporum, Eurybia, 
&c., are to be found many fern trees of the genus Dicksonia—the 
Dicksonia antarctica being the species growing there. Many of 
them have more than one crown; but there is one fern tree in 
particular, round the circumference of whose top I counted no 
fewer than nineteen crowns, and I calculated that within the cir- 
cumference there must be half as many more, making about twenty- 
eight or twenty-nine crowns in all. I considered this the most 
wonderful fern tree in the world when I first saw it, and roughly 
estimated the number of crowns at fifteen or sixteen. Now I am 
satisfied that it is one of the wonders of the world. Well do I 
remember the smile of incredulity with which many Fellows of 
the Linnean Society at one of the meetings received my state- 
ment that I had seen a fern tree with ten crowns (for I heartily 
dislike exaggeration) ; but I hope that my excellent friend your 
son will take an opportunity of confirming my statement by my 
account written on the spot. 
Strange to say, there is another fern tree of the same species 
near the former one, round the.cireumference of whose top I 
counted, just the other day, seventeen crowns, which would give 
a total of twenty-five. There are also two others within twenty 
or thirty yards of it, the one with seven and the other with six 
crowns. ‘The fern tree with twenty-five crowns is a very singular 
one; for it seems to have been originally about sixteen feet high, 
and to have fallen, and broken at a height of nine feet from the 
ground, and then to have shot up straight from the fracture. It 
now stands about eight or nine feet high. W. ARCHEB. 
