6 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



character exclusively, no Tree Ferns being known to grow spontaneously in 

 any of the above-mentioned habitats. Even in North America, which is 

 the home of the most gigantic Conifers, and whose forests contain, probably, 

 the tallest -growing trees, arborescent Ferns are conspicuous by their absence. 

 The production of these highly interesting and most imposing specimens of 

 vegetation appears to be restricted to India, tropical America, New Zealand, 

 and Australia. Tree Ferns natives of Australia and New Zealand are by 

 far the best known to European cultivators, probably on account of the 

 greater facility with which they are imported. Of all Tree Ferns, 

 Dicksonia antarctica is undoubtedly the most popular in our collections. 

 This is easily understood when notice is taken of the peculiarly fibrous 

 character of its stem, which is naturally and densely clothed throughout its 

 whole length with living roots, and which, on that account, may safely be, and 

 generally is, simply cut above the surface of the ground, and shipped to 

 Europe as a log of wood, and without any further preparation. In that 

 way, and provided the operation takes place during the resting season, 

 Dicksonia antarctica travels very well. The above treatment, however, is 

 hardly applicable to other kinds of New Zealand and Australian Tree Ferns, 

 such as Alsophilas and Cyatheas, whose stems, of a more woody nature, 

 cannot with impunity be cut down at any length, and which, to ensure safe 

 transit, require to be dug out of the ground with their roots, or at least 

 the best part of them, thus making their importation much more difficult, 

 and accounting, in a great measure, for their comparative scarcity in European 

 collections. These latter remarks apply equally to Indian and tropical 

 American Tree Ferns, though most of the species of Ferns with beautifully 

 tinted and powdered fronds are natives of these countries. It is thence 

 that the popular Gold and Silver Gymnogrammes, the magnificently -coloured 

 Pteris (quadriaurita) tricolor and P. (q.) argyrwa, as also the lovely Adiantum 

 tinctum, A. macrophyllwn, A. polyphyllum (cardiochlcena) , A. (tetraphyllum) 

 Henderso?ii, A. {tenerum) Farley ense, and a host of others, have been 

 introduced. 



It must not be inferred from the above statements that only the Ferns 

 at present in cultivation will be mentioned, for many species which were 

 formerly cultivated in our collections, but which, nowadays, are very difficult 

 to find, as well as Ferns which, though not in general cultivation, are 



