FERNS, AND THEIR ALLIES. ig 



The conditions of genial mildness in an atmosphere 

 charged with aqueous vapour, and of great uniformity 

 in respect to moisture and warmth, are fulfilled on 

 the declivities of the mountains in the valleys of the 

 Andes, and more especially in the southern milder 

 and more humid atmosphere, where arborescent ferns 

 advance not only to New Zealand and Tasmania, but 

 even as far as the Straits of Magellan and Campbell 

 Island, and therefore to a southern latitude almost 

 identical in degrees with the parallel in which Berlin 

 is situated north of the equator. 



All travellers who have visited the " fern gullies " 

 in Australasia, speak rapturously of the impression 

 made upon them by a first sight of a grove of these 

 "kings and princes" of cryptogamic vegetation. The 

 trunks may not be so lofty as those of the palms, but 

 are more picturesque from their rugged surface. The 

 fronds are of a brighter and more vivid green, and far 

 more elegant in their tracery, and the delicate sub- 

 divisions of their compound pinnules. What they 

 may lose in majesty they gain in beauty, and, not 

 being so far removed from the eye, all the advantages 

 are increased in effect. 



Scythian Lamb. 



The old story of the "Scythian" or "Tartarian 

 Lamb " has been referred to a species of tree fern, or 

 Cibotium. Darwin, in his " Loves of the Plants," 

 describes the mystic object as generally represented 

 in folk-lore— 



