FERXS. 



105 



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

 native S. vtdgarc 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. 

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

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

 leaf -mould. Xone do well unless well shaded ; the 

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

 riance as when growing in the sides of old wells, 

 where abundant moistui-e 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 Dicksonias. — The genus DlckHonia is by 

 far the most important of those included in the tribe 

 Dicksonice by Hooker and Baker. About half the 

 species are arborescent, with large decompound coria- 

 ceoi'.s fi-onds ; 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. L'j)wards 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 bo seen in the collection of living ferns at the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew. 



I), antarctica, 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 

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

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

 endures a transit through great distances. Indeed, 

 a fresh frondless stem, even if 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 ^•itality being fuUy 

 thus maintained for several months, particularly 

 if 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 

 constantly 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 — gullies — where the 

 sun rarely penetrates and where they are sometimes 

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

 the Eoyal 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 

 Argyleshiro, where shaded ravines and gullies may 

 be found similar to those of Mount AVellington in 

 Xew Zealand. 



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

 Malaj-an Peninsula and Islands, has tripinnate fronds 

 which attain a height of twelve or fourteen feet (in 

 this country) ; these rise from a thick decumbent 

 caudex, which is densely covered with silky hairs, 

 and lying on the ground has the appearance of a 

 woolly-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 and partly 

 yegetable, and to have the power of devoui'ing 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. Brackenrulgci, 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 imder the name of 

 D. Bcrteroana. 



I). Culcita has a thick rhizome with so dense a 

 covering of long brown silky haii's that it has be- 

 come an article of commei-ce, and is used for stuffing 

 cushions and the like ; the species is a native of 

 Madeira and the Azoi'es, and is also found in Spain. 

 It has tripinnate fronds twelve to eighteen inches 

 long by a foot in breadth. 



D. fibrosa is a neat small-growing tree fern from 

 Xew Zealand ; the rhomboid trip)innate fronds, three 

 to four feet long, have densely pilose grey rachises 

 and very short stipes, clothed with dense fibriUose 

 bright brown scales. 



B. punctiloha 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 chafSess stipes 

 spring from slender, extensively-creeping, naked root- 

 stocks. 



I). Sellowiana is an arborescent species fi-om South 

 Brazil ; it has lanceolate, bipinnate, leathery fronds 

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



B. sqv.aryosa 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 

 fibrillose scales — and oblong-deltoid, rigidly leathery 

 fronds, green on both surfaces. 



Cultivation. — Of the species above mentioned, 

 B. pKuctihba is the only one which can fairly claim 

 to be hardy, although B. antarctica and B. sqt/arrosa 



