FERNS, AND THEIR ALLIES. 1 7 



species, AlsopJiila, attains a height of thirty feet, with 

 a rough black trunk, and fronds of from twelve to 

 fourteen feet in length. The giant of tree ferns, 

 however, is found in Norfolk Island, where AlsopJtila 

 excelsa will grow to the height of eighty feet. 



An experienced traveller, visiting the Aru Islands, 

 declares that "the greatest novelty and most striking 

 feature to his eyes were the tree ferns, which, after 

 seven years spent in the tropics, he then saw in per- 

 fection for the first time. All he had hitherto met 

 with were slender species, not more than twelve feet 

 high, and they gave not the slightest idea of the 

 supreme beauty of trees, bearing their elegant heads 

 of fronds, more than thirty feet in the air, like those 

 which were plentifully scattered about this forest. 

 There is nothing in tropical vegetation so perfectly 

 beautiful."^ 



Dr. J. D. Hooker says, in his "Himalayan Journals," 

 that "the most interesting botanical ramble about 

 Silhet is to the tree-fern groves on the path to Jyn- 

 tespore, following the bottoms of the shallow valleys, 

 and along clear streams, up whose beds we waded 

 for some miles, under an arching canopy of tropical 

 shrubs, trees, and climbers. In the narrower parts 

 of the valleys tree ferns are numerous on the slopes, 

 rearing their slender brown trunks forty feet high, 

 with feathery crowns of foliage, through which the 

 sunbeams trembled on the broad shining foliage of 

 the tropical herbage below." ^ 



Humboldt has remarked it as singular that no 



» A. R. Wallace, "The Malay Archipelago," vol. ii. p. 209. (1869.) 

 * Hooker, " Himalayan Journals," vol. i. p. 325. 



