9 
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Royal Gardens. We shall thus, we trust, render some service to 
our readers, and also have the pleasure of recording the names of 
numerous contributors to the valuable collection possessed in this 
splendid establishment, together with the date of introduction 
of new plants, so far as can be ascertained. 
1. PLatyceriumM BirorME, £7. 
Epiphytum, frondibus amplis sterilibus sessilibus distiche patentibus sub- 
orbicularibus superne lobatis subtus radicantibus basi incrassatis, fertilibus 
petiolatis liberis longissime dichotomis pendulis basin versus in lamimam 
latissimam reniformem fructificantibus. 
Platycerium biforme, B/. F/. Jav. Fil. p. 44. tab. 18. Hook. Gen. Fil. 
t.9. B. Platycerium grande, J. Sm. Gen. Fil. Acrostichum grande, AU. 
Cunn. MSS. A. fuciforme, Wal/. Cat. n. 20. A. biforme, Sw. 
Haz. Malay Islands and tropical parts of the East Indies and New 
Holland. Introduced 1842, by J. Bidwill, Esq. 
The first subject we here record, among the many additions to 
the ‘ Hortus Kewensis,’ is not the least remarkable, being the 
noblest of all eprphytal Ferzs, and at the same time one of the most 
curious. Blume says of it, “ Filix omnium facile maxima mon- 
struosa, fronde vasta, dispari. rons primordialis sessilis, alte- 
ram circumvallans, ad nidi ingentis instar caudici vetusto drenge 
saccharifere, ubi versus coronam squamis densis reticulatis vesti- 
tur, affixa, frondibus pluribus, tanquam in orbem dispositis, con- 
formata, inferne e centro radicans.’’ Blume’s own figure is taken 
from a small and apparently a dried specimen. That of Capt. 
Wilks, in the ‘ Voyage of the United States Exploring Expedition,’ 
vol. il. p. 181, represents it as cultivated on the branch of a tree 
im the garden of our venerable friend, Alexander McLeay, Esq., 
Elizabeth Bay, Sidney, and is very characteristic. Two very fine 
specimens (but yet inferior to the size which they attam im 
their native country), were brought by Mr. Bidwill from Moreton 
Bay, with many other rarities, in 1842. One of them is flourish- 
ing in the noble palm-stove at Syon House; the other was libe- 
rally presented to the Royal Gardens; where, placed on the per- 
pendicular surface of a broad deal board, and held in that position 
for some time by means of pack-thread, it soon adhered to the 
board by the numerous fibrous roots sent out from the lower 
surface of the primordial fronds, and has grown vigourously in 
the Orchideous House, though it has not yet produced its fertile 
fronds, while that at Syon has already exhibited its singular 
patches of fructification. The sterile fronds may be likened to the 
two spread flaps of a saddle, (other dead and withered ones lying 
beneath these); from the smus between these two, a new frond 
