174 DICTIONAEY OF POPULAR NAMES FILBERT 



Hottentot Figs, With a few exceptions they are all natives 

 of Sonth Africa; they are represented in Australia by if. 

 mquilateraUy the fruit of -which is eaten by the natives. 



Filbert. {See Hazel.) 



Filmy Ferns, a name applied to the tribe of ferns termed 

 Hymenophyllese, of which there are nearly 200 species described, 

 found in all regions conducive to fern life. As a tribe they 

 differ from other ferns by the extremely delicate and, in general, 

 thin pellucid texture of the fronds, which, in the different 

 species, vary much in form and size, from half an inch to a foot 

 and a half in length, entire, or variously lobed or multifid. 

 Three species are native of tliis country, but are rare, and are 

 becoming more so in conseq[uence of the interest taken in them by 

 amateurs, who grow them in Wardian cases, in which they form 

 interestiag objects. In 1864 the Kew collection consisted of 

 sixty exotic species of Hymeno^pliyllum and Tricliomanes, 



FinoccMo, or Finicho. {See Pennel, Giant.) 



Fiorin Grass {Agrostis stolonifera), a wide-spreading, creep- 

 ing, bent grass, which, with A, alba, was highly extolled by the 

 late Dr. Eichardson as a winter fodder grass ; he brought the 

 subject so prominently before the Agricultural Society and the 

 public that he was caricatured mowing grass in winter with his 

 coat off and the snow on the ground. 



Fir Trees are typically represented by the well-known Nor- 

 way Spruce, Silver, and Balm of GUead Firs, which, with the 

 recently-discovered allied species, form a part of the important 

 family Goniferse. They were originally included under the genus 

 Firm$ of Linnseus, but modern botanists have considered it 

 proper to separate them as a distinct genus under the name of 

 Alies, which by some authorities also includes the Larch and 

 Cedar of Lebanon (which see). The species of AUes are readily 

 distinguished from those of Pinus by having short linear leaves 

 separately attached, closely set on the branches, imbricate in 

 two or more distinct rows, while those of Pinus are long, narrow, 

 and needle-like, produced in fascicles of two, three, or five. 



During the present century many new species of AUes have 



