FERNS. 



195 



Tided them, are not hardy in the sense applied to our 

 native 5. rulgare and its host of varieties. They are 

 excellent subjects for planting out on rock- work in 

 the cool fernery, or for growing in AVardian cases. 

 AU require a good mellow, loamy soil, with a fair 

 proportion of half-decayed vegetable matter — i.e., 

 leaf -mould. Js one do well vmless weU shaded ; the 

 common Hart's-tongue is never seen in such luxu- 

 riance as when growing in the sides of old wells, 

 where abundant moisture is always present, and 

 direct sunlight never reaches it. Given shade and 

 continuous moisture, soil is a secondary consideration 

 with this easily-grown and handsome fern. 



The Bicksonias. — The genus Dieksotiia is by 

 far the most important of those included in the tribe 

 Dichsonia by Hooker and Baker. About half the 

 species are arborescent, with large decompound coria- 

 ceov.s fronds ; the others have creeping rhizomes, 

 and, with two exceptions, are at least fully bipinnate. 

 They principally inhabit tropical America and Poly- 

 nesia, but one species reaches as far north as Canada, 

 another extends to South-western Europe, and several 

 others are scattered throughout the southern parts of 

 the temperate zone. Upwards of forty species are 

 known to botanists, and of this number about half 

 are or have been in cultivation. The following are 

 the names of the most distinct and useful of those 

 now' to be seen in the collection of living ferns at the 

 Eoyal Gardens, Kew. 



B. antarctiea, abundant in the humid forests of 

 East Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, is 

 perhaps the most widely grown and the most popular 

 of all tree-ferns. It is not only one of the tallest of 

 aU the tree-ferns of the globe, but certainly also one 

 of the most hardy, and the one which best of aU 

 endures a transit through great distances. Indeed. 

 a fresh frondless stem, even it weighing nearly half 

 a ton, requires only to be placed without any packing 

 in the hold of a vessel as ordinary goods to secure 

 its safe arrival in Europe, the vitality being fully 

 thus maintained for several months, particularly 

 it the stem is occasionally moistened, and kept free 

 from the attacks of any animals. On arrival the 

 stem should be placed in a cool house and kept 

 coiistantly moist ; a good plan is to fasten a piece 

 of canvas loosely round it and keep this wet by 

 frequent slight syringings. The matted adventitious 

 roots of the stem are by such treatment soon stimu- 

 lated to action, and a crown of foliage is soon de- 

 veloped. Specimens in their native habitats not 

 unfrequently attain a height of 50 feet; they are 

 generally found in damp places — guUies — where the 

 sun rarely penetrates and where they are sometimes 

 covered with snow. Mr. J. Smith, the ex-curator of 

 the Koyal Gardens, Kew, suggests that this species 



should be tried in suitable situations in the South and 

 West of England, as also in the mild climate of 

 Argyleshire, where shaded ravines and gullies may 

 be found similar to those of Mount Wellington in 

 New Zealand. 



D. Baroinctz, a native of Assam, South China, the 

 Malayan Peninsula and Islands, has tripinnate fronds 

 which attain a height of twelve or fourteen feet {in 

 this country) ; these rise from a ttuck decumbent 

 caudex, which is densely covered with silky hairs, 

 and Ijing on the ground has the appearance of a 

 wooUy-clad animal. This is the curious vegetable 

 production of which, in the earlier books of travel, 

 many fabulous stories are told. Amongst other 

 things, it was said to be partly animal sind partly 

 vegetable, and to have the power of devouring all 

 other plants in its vicinity. Darwin, the ancestor of 

 the great naturalist, has some fanciful verses about 

 the Barometz or Scythian Lamb in his "Botanic 

 Garden." 



D. Braehenridgei, a recent introduction to British 

 gardens, is a native of Fiji and Samoa, and has a 

 stem which attains a height of fifteen feet. It has 

 rigid, green, glabrous, tripinnate fronds. Generally 

 speaking, this species is met with under the name of 

 D. Berteroaiia. 



D. Cidcita has a thick rhizome with so dense a 

 covering of long brown silky hairs that it has be- 

 come an article of commerce, and is used for stuflBng 

 cushions and the like; the species is a native of 

 Madeira and the Azores, and is also found in Spain. 

 It has tripinnate fronds twelve to eighteen inches 

 long by a foot in breadth. 



J), fibrosa is a neat small-growing tree fern from 

 New Zealand ; the rhomboid tripinnate fronds, three 

 to four feet long, have densely pilose grey rachises 

 and very short stipes, clothed with dense fibriHose 

 bright brown scjiles. 



D. punctiloba is very common in moist, rather shady 

 places in Canada and the United States. It has 

 pleasantly-scented, thin, pale green, ovate-lanceolate, 

 pointed bipinnate fronds from a foot and a half to 

 three feet in height ; the strong chaffless stipes 

 spring from slender, extensively-creeping, naked root- 

 stocks. 



D. Sellowimm is an arborescent species from South 

 Brazil ; it has lanceolate, bipinnate, leathery fronds 

 six to eight feet long and two to three feet broad. 



D. squai-rosa is the most southern tree-fern in the 

 world ; it has chestnut-coloured stipes six inches to 

 a foot long— densely clothed with soft-spreading 

 fihrillose scales — and oblong-deltoid, rigidly leather}' 

 fronds, green on both surfaces. 



Cultivation. — Of the species above mentioned, 

 D. punctiloba is the only one which can fairly claim 

 to be hardy, although J), antarctiea and D. sjKarrosa 



