354 FERNS. 



candlestick ; the elongated scars on the stem, that 

 mark the position once borne by the now-fallen fronds ; 

 and especially the lower half of the stem, so clothed 

 with roots as to look like a mass of intertwining wire, 

 black and shining, and running down with the con- 

 centrated moisture of these damp woods, are totally 

 unlike anything ever seen in a temperate climate. 

 Finally, there is another species of the same genus 

 abundant in these lofty woods, A. pruinata, which, 

 had it an altitude commensurate with its expansion, 

 would be one of the most magnificent ferns in the 

 world. Instead of spines, its trunk is invested with 

 woolly hair; and its minutely divided foliage, ele- 

 gantly tapering, and of a tender green above, is 

 covered beneath with a silver hoar, like that of the 

 Gymnogrammas, in which it is the rival of the most 

 magnificent of all Ferns, Cyathea dealbata, the Silver 

 Tree-fern of New Zealand. 



Thus our imaginary tour through one tropical 

 island would bring before our notice examples of 

 almost every important type of form included in this 

 immense order. Indeed, there is no notable exception 

 but the Platyceria or Stag-horn Ferns those remark- 

 able parasitic forms that cling to the trunks of great 

 trees, and have two kinds of fronds, one globose and 

 bent downward, the other flat and palmate and 

 spreading. No example of this curious Fern is found 

 in the western hemisphere. 



Drynaria, a sub-genus of the great genus Poly- 

 podium, though not unrepresented in the western 



