lO ROxMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



growing. After passing through a dense forest, we 

 descended a hill covered with exuberant vegetation, 

 and shaded by enormous trees ; we then came upon 

 a marshy spot, luxuriant in vegetation, where the mag- 

 nificent tree ferns {Dicksoiiid) rose in clumps before us. 

 Solitude reigned, only disturbed by the low murmur- 

 ing of the silver rivulets, as they meandered through 

 the richly verdant banks. The largest of these 

 magnificent ferns is about twenty feet high, and the 

 trunk two feet in circumference. It is remarkable from 

 the large size of the spiral stipes, and the enormous 

 extent of its fronds ; the trunk, stipes, and central 

 stalks of the fronds are of a beautiful shining black 

 colour ; the length of the fronds is from sixteen to 

 eighteen feet, and the leaflets two to three feet. Not 

 far distant grew the other species, which attains the 

 size of the Ponga both in trunk and extent of fronds, 

 but the leaflets are smaller, and the stalk and under 

 surface of the fronds are yellow. These two species 

 thrive in marshy ground, and in dense, shady 

 localities." ^ 



From another source we learn that the " silver 

 fern," or Ponga, reaches far greater dimensions than 

 those stated above, since the trunk will acquire a 

 height of forty feet, and it is peculiar to New Zea- 

 land, where another indigenous species reaches a 

 height of twenty-four feet. In Tasmania the beauti- 

 ful Dicksonia grows to from thirty to fifty feet in 

 height, with sometimes a diameter of not less than 

 four feet, and fronds twelve feet in length. Another 



' George Bennett, ^LD., " Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia," 

 p. 417. (i860.) 



