138 THE EXTRA-TROPICAL TREES OF ARRAN.  [Szss. 1xx- 
Arran myself. Those at Cromla were kindly made for me 
by the Rev. James Brown, Corrie; at Brodick and Whiting 
Bay by the forester, Mr William Inglis; and in Brodick 
Castle Garden by the gardener. 
‘TEMPERATURES. 
Minimum Temperatures in Winter of 1894-5. 
Queen’s Park, Glasgow (10th Feb., 7 a.m.). 2° below zero. 
Whittinghame, Haddingtonshire 4 : zero, 
Kinloch Hourn, Inverness-shire. , : zero. 
Achnashie, Roseneath, Dumbartonshire . A° Ff. 
Glendoune, Girvan, Ayrshire. ; ; 10° F. 
Tighnabruaich, Kyles of Bute . hy eas te 
Lamlash, Arran : : } : ae tes 
Sudden cold after a mild autumn, and late frost after a 
mild spring, do much more injury than the same intensity in 
the heart of winter. Some plants are more éxcitable than 
others, and in a mild spring start growth early. These suffer 
more from a late frost than some plants which would suffer 
more from severe frost in winter. 
TREE FERNS. 
The Great Bush Fern of Australia, Dicksonia Billardiert 
(D. antaretica).—The first tree-fern grown in the open air 
in Scotland. Height, 40 feet. 
This fern does not grow, as the name antarctica would 
denote, in antarctic regions. The specific name has therefore 
been changed to Billardieri, the name of the naturalist by 
whom the former name was given. In greenhouses the stem 
of this fern is generally clothed with moss, to increase the 
vigour of the plant by the nourishment thus obtained by the 
stem-reotlets. This has not been done with the plants at 
Cromla, as it was wished to exhibit them in their natural 
state. These ferns at Cromla are specially interesting to 
the geologist, as in them we see again growing in our own 
country examples of those tree-ferns which in earlier eras of 
the world’s history grew there abundantly. From spores 
of the original fern, sent in 1892 to the Botanic Garden, 
