HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i°5 



Countries subject at times to extreme cold and 

 long drought are the least favourable to their growth. 

 In the temperate zones they abound everywhere ; 

 but it is in the deep shade of tropical forests, where 

 the air is densely saturated with moisture, and the 

 sun's rays can never penetrate, that these exquisite 

 plants luxuriate most freely. Nay, if we go back to 

 the beginning of creation, before flowers, before 

 •trees, long before animal life had commenced, we find 

 ferns and their allies, the club-mosses (Lycopodiace?e) 



we fear " fragrant " no longer,* at least not deliciously 

 so), cannot be compared in point of size and grandeur 

 with our king of British ferns, O. regalis. But there 

 are sufficient points of resemblance for any acquainted 

 with one, to recognise the other. The clusters of 

 spore-cases occupy the centre of the frond, narrowing 

 and altering it in appearance. The frond is simply 

 pinnate, and often deeply serrate, usually from 2-3 

 feet high. The colour is bright green with a firm, 

 shiny, erect appearance, differing in this from the 



Fig- 69. — Lygodiutn 

 scandens, Sw. 



Fie. 6S. — Lygodium Japoiiicum, Sw 

 (Fertile.) 



covering the almost drowned 

 world in strange preparation 

 for the wants of future ages. 



Can we fail to take an inter- 

 est in them? And can our 

 interest be satisfied until we 

 have bestowed some attention 



upon the structure and classification of the different 

 species we meet with in our daily walks ? 



The following notes may be of assistance to those 

 who wish to know something about the common 

 •ferns growing in the neighbourhood of Victoria and 

 the Peak. 



Gen. I. OsMUNDA, Linn. 



[O. Javaiuca, Blume.) 



The species we shall find in many water-courses 

 and along the banks of rocky streams (some of them 



Fig. 70. — Glckhcnia dichotoma, Willd. 



herbaceous texture and golden-brown tints of 

 O. regalis, and the veins are light-coloured and 

 distinct, especially when the plant is young. 



Gen. II. Lygodium, Sw. 



(Creeping or Climbing Fern.) 



There are three species of lygodium to be found in 

 I long-Kong, but in Lygodium Japonicum, Sw., we 

 have the commonest, if not the loveliest, fern in the 

 island. Examine the sori all round the edge, like the 

 joints of a cog-wheel. How beautifully the seed- 

 coverings are plaited, or laid like the tiles of a roof 

 one upon the other, each tiny tenement containing 

 one capsule or spore-case, which in its turn holds 

 numerous spores (or seeds), almost invisible to the 

 naked eye ! The leaves are either in pairs or else 

 pinnate (i.e. with pinnae or plumes like a feather), 

 the segments or divisions of the frond often numbering 

 from 5-10. There is no need to say that this fern is 

 a climber. It creeps up anything it can catch hold 

 of, and often attains in this way to a considerable 



• The name Hong-Kong 

 fragrant streams." 



Chinese means "Land of 



