551 



from distant view : above was the noble crest of fronds, or leaves, resembling those of 

 Aspleuium Filix-fajmina in form, but exceeding eleven feet in length, in various de- 

 grees of inclination between erect and horizontal, and of the tenderest greeiT, rendered 

 more delicate by the contrast with the dark verdure of the surrounding foliage. At 

 my feet were several other ferns of large size, covering the ground, and which, through 

 age and their favourable situation, had attained root- stocks a foot in height, crowned 

 by circles of leaves three times that length. Other plants of tree-fern, at short distan- 

 ces, concealed from my view, by their spreading fronds, the foliage of the lofty ever- 

 greens that towered a hundred feet above them. The trunk of one of the tree-ferns 

 was clothed with a Trichomanes and several species of Hymenophyllum — small mem- 

 branaceous ferns of great delicacy and beauty. On a rocky bank adjoining, there were 

 other ferns, with creeping roots, that threw up their bright green fronds at short dis- 

 tances from each other, decorating the ledges on which they grew. In the deepest 

 recesses of this shade I could enjoy the novel scene — ferns above, below, around — ^\ith- 

 out fear of molestation; no dangerous beasts of prey inhabiting this interesting island." 

 —p. 34. 



On leaving Hobait Town the author sailed to Port Davey, and 

 thence to Macquarie Harbour, where he describes the timber as being 

 very fine. The Huon pine, valuable for ship-building &c., abounds 

 on the eastern side ; it attains a height of 100 feet, and a circumfer- 

 ence of 25 feet; it has a pyramidal shape, and the branches are clothed 

 with numerous slender scaly branchlets of lively green, as in the 

 cypress and arbor vitae. The celery-topped pine — Thalamia asple- 

 nifolia — is suitable for masts ; myrtle for keels ; and the roots of 

 light- wood — Acacia Melanoxylon — make beautiful veneers. This 

 latter wood derives its name from swimming in the water, the other 

 woods, pine excepted, generally sink. Hats are made of the sha- 

 vings of some Acacias, " as well as from broad-leaved sedges — Le- 

 pidosperma gladiata ; the leaves being first boiled and bleached," At 

 Philips Island, in the same vicinity, we have another peep at the tree 

 ferns. 



" The huts were almost overgrown with the Macquarie Harbour vine, a luxuriant 

 climber, bearing small acid frnit. We walked over the island, and down one of its 

 sides, which was woody, and which exhibited the finest tree-ferns we had seen, and in 

 great profusion. They were of two kinds, one of which we did not meet with else- 

 where. Some of their larger fronds or leaves were thirteen feet long, making the dia- 

 meter of the crest twenty-six feet. The stems were of all degrees of elevation, up to 

 twenty-five or thirty feet; some of them, at the lower part, were as stout as a man's 

 body : those of Cybotium Billardieri were covered with roots to the outside: the whole 

 length of those of the other species — Alsophila australis — was clothed with the bases 

 of old leaves, which were rough, like the stems of raspberries, closely tiled over each 

 other, and pointing upwards. There was also a number of other ferns, of humble 

 growth : two species of the beautiful g nus Gleichenia had tough, wiry stems, which 

 were used in the settlement for making bird-ca^es.'' — p. 55. 



