80 FERNS. 



order where the diffusion of the species is so wide as in the 

 ferns is calculated to raise our expectation of what we may 

 expect when the flowering plants of the same region are 

 gathered; and it is interesting to notice that some of the 

 species, such as Asplenium triclwmanes, Neplirodium filix- 

 mas, and Aspidium aculateum, are thoroughly temperate 

 types. The development of lamina in the species known 

 elsewhere, and the strong tendency shown hy many of them 

 to become viviparous, indicates a damp humid climate, with 

 localities excellently suited for the development of fern- 

 growth." * The genera Asplenium and Pteris are largely 

 represented, and Ophioglossum and Adiantum are also found, 

 but more sparingly. Dr. Charles Meller describes a pendent 

 ribbon-like fern {Ophioglossum pendulum) hanging from a part of 

 the fork of a tree on the east coast, with its roots fixed in a mass 

 of earth and leaves collected in the hollow. Each ribbon fell 

 to a distance of from three to five feet, then bifurcated, send- 

 ing down a spore-case, some of the bands of which measured 

 twelve feet long. Fine specimens of the Mascarene gold 

 and silver ferns (Gymnogramme argenta and G. aurea) are 

 found in the outskirts of the Madagascar woods ; and also 

 several Lycopodiums, one of which (Z. complanatiom), although 

 widely spread, was not known before either in Continental 

 Africa or any of the islands of the Mascarene archipelago. 

 Some of the finest ferns are found in the deep and damp 

 fosses which surround the old towns in the central provinces. 

 Although the tree-ferns are fine and plentiful in every place 

 where there is shade and moisture, they hardly attain the 

 size of the New Zealand species, of which there is such a 

 grand specimen to be seen in the tropical department of the 

 Crystal Palace. 



On my first journey through the eastern forests of Mada- 

 gascar, I found several species of those plants with variegated- 

 coloured leaves, which have since become so popular in 

 England in our drawing-rooms and hothouses. Some of 

 these are veined with gold and resemble the Echites, though 

 not so shrubby. They were to be seen along the roadsides, 

 but I doubt not that researches in the denser recesses of the 



* Linn. Soc. Jour., Hot, xv. p. 422 ; xvi. pp. 197-206. 



