16 FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



Progressing westwards we come to the two strangely 

 isolated islands in the Southern Atlantic, St. Helena 

 and Ascension. From the former of these we have As- 

 plenium compressum, introduced by Mr. Thomas Fraser 

 in 1825, and Asplenium reclinatum, brought home by 

 Dr. J. D. Hooker on his return from Sir John Ross's 

 Antarctic expedition in 1844; together with Lomaria 

 alpina and L. Magellanica from the Falkland Islands ; 

 while from Ascension Mr. Wren sent numerous fine 

 plants of Marattia purpurcscens in 1848. 



From Australia several individuals have been con- 

 tributors. Grammitis Australis was received from the- 

 Sydney garden in 1833, when under the direction of 

 Mr. Richard Cunningham; and Mr. Charles Moore, 

 the present Director of that garden, has also intro- 

 duced several, including Trichiocarpa Moorei, from 

 New Caledonia, while to Mr. Bidwill we owe the 

 curious Platycerium grande. But some of the most 

 beautiful of the Australian Ferns, such as the Glei- 

 chenias, were transmitted to this country by Mr. 

 Walter Hill, the able Director of the Botanic 

 Garden of Brisbane, in the rapidly rising colony of 

 Queensland, who obtained them during his stay in 

 Sydney in 1850. Two species of Gleicheniacece were,, 

 however, previously known in our gardens, the Glei- 

 chenia microphytta and G. flabellata, both of which, 

 together with several other Ferns, were sent from 

 Tasmania, in 1845, by Mr. Ronald Gunn. 



About the year 1841 or 1842, some very fine Ferns,, 

 including two Tree-Ferns, the Dicksonia squarrosa and 

 Cyathea medullaris, were brought from New Zealand, 

 where they had been collected by Mr. J. Edgerly, a 

 gardener, who had proceeded to that country on 



