July 23, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



357 



appreciated by hundreds of those who visit Kew for purposes 

 of study. 



Amongst the most striking of the plants noticed by me re- 

 cently, when looking over the gardens at Birmingham, the fol- 

 lowing deserve special mention : 



Tree Ferns are well represented, and comprise some unique 



luxuriance are generally treated as stove or intermediate spe- 

 cies. There are Cyathea princeps, C. spectabilis, C. funebris 

 and C. medullaris represented by tall-stemmed, large-headed 

 specimens. Cibotiums were equally striking: as were Alsophila 

 excelsa, with a stem fifteen feet high ; A. australis, twenty feet 

 high ; Lomaria gibba, Dicksonia squarrosa, a pair, twenty feet 



l''K- 47- — /Esculus Parrvi. — See page 356. 



examples of rare species. They are grown in a tall octagonal 

 house along with Camellias, Lapagerias and other typical 

 greenhouse plants. I mention this fact as conclusive evidence 

 that the Ferns receive ordinary greenhouse treatment all the 

 year round. In winter the temperature frequently falls to forty 

 degrees Fahr. Unless I am very much mistaken some of the 

 Ferns which are growing in this house in perfect health and 



high ; D. antarctica and D. Lathamii. This last is sup- 

 posed to be a hybrid between D. antarctica and the rare 

 D. arborescens, a native of St. Helena. Mr. Latham, the cu- 

 rator of the gardens, raised this plant from spores at a time 

 when he had growing together the two species from which it 

 is supposed to have originated. It is a very distinct Tree Fern, 

 quite unlike any other known in gardens. The stem is seven 



