i;UCALYi>TUS TEEES. 169 



are scattered not further west than to the craters of 

 extinct volcanoes near Mount Gambler, and although 

 colossal Todea Ferns, with stems six to ten feet high, 

 and occasionally as thick, emerge from the streamlets 

 which meander through the deep ravines near Mount 

 Lofty, on St. Vincent's Gulf, we miss there the stately 

 Palm-like grace of the Cyathese, Dicksonise, and Al- 

 sophilee, which leave on the lover of nature who ever 

 beheld them the remembrance of their inexpressible 

 beauty. These Fern - trees, often twenty to thirty, 

 occasionally fifty to seventy feet high, and at least as 

 many years old, if not older, admit readily of removal 

 from their still mild and humid haunts to places where, 

 for decorative vegetation, we are able to produce the 

 moisture and the shade necessary for their existence. 

 Of all Fern-trees of the globe that species which pre- 

 dominates through the dark glens of Victoria, Tasma- 

 nia, and parts of New South Wales, the Dicksonia 

 Antarctica (although not occurring in the antarctic 

 regions), is the most hardy and least susceptible to 

 dry heat. This species, therefore, should be chosen 

 for garden ornaments, or for being plunged into any 

 park glens ; and if it is considered that trees half a 

 century old may with impunity be deprived of their 

 foliage and sent away to distant countries as ordinary 

 merchandise, it is also surprising that a plant so abund- 

 ant has not yet become an article of more extended 

 commerce. 



A multitude of smaller ferns, many of delicate 

 forms, are harbored under the shade of jungle vege- 

 tation, amounting in their aggregate to about one 

 hundred and sixty species, to which number future 

 researches in north-east Australia will undoubtedly 



