CHAPTER III, 



TREE FERNS. 



OWEVER rich in species of herbaceous Ferns some European 

 countries are, it is a fact that no Tree Ferns are found in a 

 wild state in Europe. In that part of the world, the nearest 

 approach to an arborescent Fern is Dicksonia [Balantium) 

 Cidcita, which is found indigenous in Madeira, where it grows 

 plentifully in swampy places ; at least, such an inference may reasonably be 

 drawn from the fact that a quantity of Hymenophyllum twibridgense is 

 generally found growing on the crowns which are imported into this country. 



For the greater part of the Ferns belonging to this the first section we 

 are mostly indebted to the mountainous regions of Australia, where they 

 grow in shady ravines or in valleys where the atmosphere is constantly 

 humid. There they attain almost incredible dimensions ; and although when 

 under cultivation in Europe these same Australian species cannot get to such 

 extraordinary sizes, they may, nevertheless, be considered as the monarch of 

 the arborescent greenhouse vegetation. South America, China, India, and 

 South Africa, are all countries where, to a certain extent, Tree Ferns are 

 produced ; but these have never become as popular under cultivation as those 

 from Australia, where the Stuart and Crawler Ranges supply in abundance the 

 particularly straight -stemmed Alsophila australis, as Queensland produces A. 

 Cooperi, a species peculiar on account of its slender and generally very 

 straight stem, which, contrary to that of nearly all other Tree Ferns, is 

 totally devoid of aerial roots. The Blue Mountains and the Liverpool 

 Range, in New South Wales, produce the handsome Dicksonia Youngice, 



