BY P. N. TREBECK. 493 



shaded by the sassafras, mimosa, and other umbrageous trees and 

 shrubs, coupled with the dampness from innumerable small springs, 

 appears exactly suitable to the highestdevelopment of the fernspecies. 

 The following are those I noted during a short stay. I did not 

 contemplate giving this paper, or would have observed the ferns 

 more closely. There are many more varieties of the genera I have 

 enumerated. I can with much confidence recommend Mt. Wilson 

 as a grand field for the naturalist who takes a special delight in 

 ferns and allied plants. " The Happy Valley " on the Waterfall 

 Creek, in addition to its being one of the most beautiful places in 

 the mountains, contains the greatest variety of ferns I have ever 

 seen in one place, all growing in the greatest luxuriance, many from 

 the strata of the perpendicular sandstone cliffs, which are 120 

 to 150 feet high. This narrow valley is 2,750 feet above the sea. 



Genus, Alsophila.. 



Alsophila australis. Growing on the sloping sides of the hills 

 and near the beds of the creeks ; trunk 12 to 20 feet high, 12 to 24 

 inches in diameter, and fronds 10 to 15 feet 6 inches long. 



Alsophila Leichardtiana. A slender and elegant tree-fern, found 

 only in a few places in this colony, but more plentiful in Queens- 

 land. Height 8 to 15 feet, fronds of a dark green, 6 to 8 feet long, 

 spinulose at their bases, with thorns \ inch long. 



Genus, Dicksonia. 



Dicksonia antarctica. Growing most luxuriantly on the very 

 summits of the hills and down some of the slopes. In some places 

 the trunks, which are covered with rootlets giving a woolly appear- 

 ance, are 35 to 40 feet high, 18 to 28 inches in diameter, with fronds 

 6 to 10 feet long. 



Dicksonia davallioides. A beautiful hardy variety with creeping 

 rhizome and brown glossy stipes, frond somewhat membranous. 

 Height 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches. It is easy of cultivation. 



Gemis, Blechnum. 

 Blechnum cartilagineum. Fronds 2 to 2 feet 6 inches high, 

 with rough hairy stipites. 



Blechnum Icevigatum. Horizontal rhizome and smooth stipites. 



