TREE-FERNS. 125 



Another quite important service, though a mechan- 

 ical one, is performed by the overlapping of roots 

 down the trunks of Tree-Ferns. Unlike our for- 

 est-trees, the fern does not increase the size of 

 its trunk, after it has once formed one, below its 

 growing-point ; and hence, as the trunk must thus 

 grow larger above, the lower portion of the trunk 

 would be the weaker, and would be liable to snap 

 in a high wind. The overlapping roots furnish 

 the strength required, and enable the plant to 

 develop in safety. 



So few Tree-Ferns, in comparison with those 

 brought to Europe, are imported into this country, 

 that it is seldom known among us how easily they 

 may be obtained and transported. In "The Fern 

 Garden," p. 129, Shirley Hibberd tells us how to 

 procure them, and how to treat them afterward : 



" Let us now suppose that some obliging friend in Aus- 

 tralia makes you a present of a lot of Tree-Ferns. He has 

 found some specimens with stems from four to five or even 

 six feet long. He has cut away all the fronds, and dug them 

 up, without taking the trouble of saving any of the roots. 

 In fact, they are stems, and nothing more, stems sans 

 fronds, sans roots, sans every thing. He leaves them out 

 in the air for a few days to dry, and then packs them with 

 shavings in a box. Let him be especially careful that this 

 box be not air-tight : that is their greatest danger. In this 

 way they generally come with pretty good success, a large 

 majority of them quite safely. And now, as we unpack them, 

 let them be placed upright in some close, cool, dark corner : 

 under the stage of a greenhouse is as good a place as they 



