64 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



is a bud, which for an indefinite period remains latent, but which, in its turn, 

 produces a prolongation of the frond by giving birth to a slender stem, 

 bearing at its summit a pair of fronds similar in shape to the one from which 

 they originated. Each one of these fronds (or even portions of them) in time 

 produces more of the same form and habit. It is the production of fresh fronds 

 from the centre of the older ones, several times repeated, which gives the 

 plants quite a sarmentose, if not even a climbing, habit, and this is rendered 

 all the more interesting by the fact that plants in good health retain their 

 fronds for a considerable time ; indeed, it is nothing unusual to see good 

 specimens bearing foliage five or six years old. 



Nearly all the plants comprised in the section of Grleichenias proper are 

 natives of New Zealand, Tasmania, and New South Wales, where they are said 

 to form imposing masses of undergrowth, somewhat resembling that of our 

 common Bracken (Pteris aquilina), generally extending over vast areas, and 

 of so dense a nature as to seriously impede the progress of travellers. Their 

 shoots keep on growing from one year to another until they attain quite 

 indefinite dimensions, thus continually adding fresh difficulties to be encountered 

 by persons coming in contact with them. Indeed, from all reports, the only 

 way to get through a tract of land in possession of Grleichenias is to cut them 

 down mercilessly — an operation from which, however, they are said to rapidly 

 recover. If such be the case in their native habitats, they certainly lose a 

 great deal of their natural vigour and hardiness when under cultivation, as 

 they always fare very badly after cutting down here, however carefully it may 

 have been done. The statements just referred to may, however, be perfectly 

 true, seeing that the soil in which they delight in their native habitats is 

 essentially different from that which, under culture, gives the most satisfactory 

 results. All Grleichenias that we have seen imported into this country, either 

 dead or alive, from various habitats, came in cases partly filled with some of 

 their native soil, which, to all appearances, invariably seemed of a heavy, 

 clayey character. This is apparently easy enough to imitate, and we know 

 of several instances in which this has been done in such a way as to defy 

 detection, except by analysis. Yet the soil thus manufactured did not answer. 

 Can it be, then, that the native soil contains some elements of which our 

 imitations are destitute ; or that, the same salts being present in both soils, 

 our water is unable to dissolve some of them, and therefore the compost is 



