34 FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



stipe ; and the latter ovate fronds of the same length, 

 but usually cordate at the base and upon long stipes. 

 Lomaria zamioides of Gardner, a plant with a trunk 

 four feet high, resembling a Zamia, found by Gardner 

 in boggy places near the summit of the Organ Moun- 

 tains, would also be a valuable addition to our small- 

 growing Tree-ferns.* Brazil is rich in Tree-ferns, but 

 only a few of them have as yet been introduced. I will 

 mention only one or two. Dicksonia Sellowiana, found 

 on the Organ Mountains, is, like the Lomaria above men- 

 tioned, remarkable for its resemblance to an extreme 

 southern species, dried specimens being scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the Dicksonia antarctica, though 

 most probably if the two were cultivated side by side 

 they would prove very distinct. Cyathea vestita and 

 C. Schamschin appear to be very plentiful throughout 

 Brazil, and both are very fine species, the former 

 having a trunk from twenty to thirty feet high. The 

 two species of Trichopt&ris T. excelsa and T. elegans 

 are also very graceful trees, found in Southern 

 Brazil, and although the latter is included in the fol- 

 lowing enumeration, it is still very rare in our collec- 

 tions. Several special localities in Brazil may be men- 

 tioned as abounding in Ferns, such as the Organ 

 Mountains and St. Catherine's, in the east ; on the 

 eastern slopes of the Andes, where at elevations of 

 from fifteen hundred to four and five thousand feet, 

 in some localities, they nourish in great luxuriance. 

 At Tarrapota, in Peru, Dr. Spruce, in a diameter of 

 fifty miles, collected no less than two hundred and 



* Fine plants of this Fern have been recently imported to this 

 country by Mr. Low of the Clapton Nurseries. 



