318 Transactions. — Botany. 



class, are, nevertheless, both striking and handsome as to colour; the 

 charming and perennial (I was about to write everlasting) ferns, continuing 

 much the same. 



First and foremost, at this season, to attract attention, are the hanging 

 panicles of globular rich scarlet-coloured fruits of the twining and lofty 

 climber Bhipogonum scandens (the "supplejack" of the colonists), their 

 flowers in the spring season being much too small and neutral- coloured to 

 be easily distinguished ; the massy bunches of dark claret-coloured fruits, 

 disposed in large spreading umbels, and half hidden under their still larger 

 dark thick and quaint leaves, of the Panax (P. arboreum), which small tree 

 also abounds there, are now very conspicuous ; the flowers too of this tall 

 shrub were not prominently seen displayed in the spring, for a similar 

 reason with that of the last ; the bright orange-coloured berries of the 

 shining-leaved Brimys axillaris, always growing together in tiny clusters of 

 three, now show themselves here and there on its coal-black bark branches ;* 

 the numerous black woody capsules, like little nuts, of the three Pittospomm 

 trees (generally soon splitting broadly open into three equal valves), are 

 now shown to perfection among their light-coloured and semi-translucent 

 leaves ; and, when in full fruit, and bursting, the highly curious and showy 

 berries (axils) of Alectryon excelsum, somewhat resembling a red raspberry 

 with a big glossy black eye in its centre (its seed) ; while the evergreen flat 

 mat plant below, overrunning the face of the ground, the dear little humble 

 Pratia angulata, which so coyly displayed its numerous white flowers in the 

 spring and all through the summer, now shows in their stead its peculiar 

 crowned fleshy carmine-coloured fruits, which, though (like its flowers) 

 modestly half-concealed, will be sure to be quickly detected and 

 noticed. 



But I must no longer detain you, but proceed to give the promised list 

 of the ferns I saw in that small plot of ground, which, indeed, is the main 

 subject of my paper, but which alone is, I fear, to some, the driest part of 

 it, unless they happily happen to know the ferns whose names are herein 

 given ; some of them, however, I have formerly exhibited here at our 

 ordinary meetings. 



* Having mentioned the " coal-black bark " of this pretty tree, I would also give in 

 a note an after-thought (which has occurred to me since I left the forests), viz., that I 

 scarcely recollect ever having seen its trunk and branches bearing any lichens or mosses, 

 where almost all trees and shrubs (not having deciduous bark) bear them thickly in 

 countless profusion : and the same peculiarity, I think, obtains with another small tree 

 possessing piquant bark, viz., Piper excelsum. If I am correct in my remark, what is such 

 a bare state, or lack of living drapery, to be attributed to? Can it be owing to tbe extreme 

 pungency of their barks ? 



