126 DICKSONIA ANTARCTICA. 



nate, and drooping; pinnae and pinnules linear-lanceolate, 

 rigid, and profoundly pinnatifid; segments ovate, very acute, 

 and inciso-serrate. 



Sori confined to the lower pinnae, globose in form, and 

 produced on the apices of the venules, small in size, but 

 numerous. Indusium coriaceous. 



Veins pinnate; venules simple, direct, and free. 



Stipes brief, and, as well as the rachis, covered with hair- 

 like ruddy scales. 



Fronds terminal, adherent to an arborescent caudex or trunk, 

 rising to the height of about thirty-five feet. 



Fronds very large, from six to twelve feet in cultivated 

 plants in England, and much larger when growing in their 

 native countries. Colour a rich, shining, dark green, paler 

 beneath. 



There are some very fine specimens at His Grace the Duke 

 of Devonshire's seat, at Chatsworth; at Earl Fitzwilliam's 

 seat, at Wentworth, Yorkshire; others at the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew, the Crystal Palace, etc. The specimen at Wentworth 

 is of very great size. In Tasmania it gives so great a feature 

 to the landscape where it grows, as to merit the appellation 

 of the "Fern Valley," etc. 



The magnificent plant at Wentworth House, was sent to Mr. 

 Joseph Henderson, from Australia, rather more than twenty-five 

 years ago; the caudex was then little more than two feet long, 

 and the plant had on one small frond, which it had recently 

 made, all the fronds having been cut off previous to transporta- 

 tion from its native country to its destination. Mr. Henderson 

 can form no idea as to the age of the plant, as it might have 

 been sixty, eighty, or a hundred years old before it left Aus- 

 tralia. The plant has thrived well since it was deposited in 

 the Fern house at Wentworth, and the height of the caudex 

 is now four feet and a half, and the girth three feet from the 

 surface of the tub — in which it grows — is three feet. The 

 length of the longest frond is eleven feet, and the width, from 

 point to point of the opposite pinnae, three feet two inches. 

 The number of fronds upon the tree is fifty-six. This plant 

 covers an area of eighteen feet six inches in diameter, which 

 is a circumference of no less than fifty-five feet six inches. It 

 is a noble specimen, and well worth a long journey to behold. 



