OAK-LEAVED FERNS. 355 



hemisphere, has its home in the vast islands of the 

 Oriental Archipelago, where it assumes some singular 

 and interesting forms. Some of these have fronds of 

 two kinds, the fertile, stalked and deeply divided ; 

 and the barren, which, springing from the great woolly 

 rhizome without any stalk, are broad, and cut at the 

 edge into rounded sinuations, like enormous oak-leaves: 

 these, in withering, become of a rich brown hue, but 

 retain their form and position, and greatly augment 

 the beauty of the specimen. Such are D. quercifolia, 

 D. diversifolia, &c. Others again, as D. morbillosa, 

 D. coronans, &c., have broad sinuate fronds of im- 

 mense size, springing at intervals from a very thick 

 scaly rootstock ; and as this has the habit of creeping 

 around the stout slanting limbs of giant trees in their 

 native isles, the stalkless leaves arching gracefully 

 outwards at their summits cause the whole plant to 

 resemble a majestic coronet, through the centre of 

 which the branch passes. 



Few of us, however, have the opportunity of wooing 

 Flora in her tropical bowers ; we content ourselves, 

 therefore, with gathering her treasures, and impro- 

 vising the tropics at home. Fortunately, the lovely 

 Ferns are domesticated with little difficulty ; and, a 

 few principles of culture having been mastered, we 

 are able to grow them to a luxuriance and beauty 

 often even superior to what they attain in their native 

 haunts. And when wealth and taste combine, what 

 can be more charming than the ample stove-ferneries 

 erected and furnished by some of our princes of horti- 



