From "In the Heart of Africa," by Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg (Cassell & Co.) 
tre;e;-fe;rns in the; virgin forest: kwidschwi island, in lake; kiwu 
The most attractive phenomena in the whole green shrubbery presented by the African, 
virgin forest are the tree-ferns, which are found chiefly in clumps close to small watercourses. 
They are perhaps the most beautiful children in Africa's flora; with their slender stems, ten 
meters and more in height, and beautiful crowns, they are more like palms than ferns, and no 
layman would recognize in them a relation of our common bracken fern. The luxuriance of 
the undergrowth corresponded with the richness in species and variety of the lower animal 
world. . . . Earthworms of more than 40 centimeters in length, and fully as thick as one's 
thumb {Benhamia spec), were extremely common. . . . The most striking feature, how- 
ever, was the wealth of butterflies in this forest. 
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