IO 
E ur ope an Ferns. 
in the accompanying cut is a much reduced copy. The plant was introduced into cultivation 
in England about fifty years ago by the late Mr. John Reeves ; the living specimens trans- 
mitted by him bore fruit in the Birmingham Botanic Garden, and were shortly afterwards 
described by Mr. John Smith under the name of Cibotium Barometz — the genus Cibotium 
being now more usually united with Dicksonia. 
It is not surprising that so remarkable a plant should have received the honours of 
poetical treatment. Darwin, in the “ Botanic Garden,” thus summarises its traditional history : — 
“ Cradled in snow and farm'd by arctic air, 
Shines, gentle Barometz ! thy golden hair ; 
Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends, 
And round and round her flexile neck she bends ; 
Crops the gray coral moss and hoary thyme, 
Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime ; 
Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam, 
Or seems to bleat, a vegetable lamb.” 
The Sieur du Bartas, at an earlier period, likewise honoured the plant with a description 
in which its paradoxical nature is forcibly brought out. 
Having depicted the amazement of our first parents 
when such a prodigy of nature first presented itself to 
their astonished gaze, he piously continues : — 
“ O merveilleux effect de la dextre divine ! 
La plante a chair et sang, l’animal a racine ; 
La plante comme en rond, de soy mesmes se meust ; 
L’animal a des pieds, et si marcher ne peut ; 
La plante est sans rameaux, sans fruit, et sans feuillage ; 
La plante a belles dents, payst son ventre aflame 
Du fourrage voysin ; l’animal est sdme.” 
Judging from specimens brought to this country, it is 
difficult to imagine that the resemblance can ever have 
been considered a striking one. 
The silky hairs covering the base of the stem of this, 
or of a closely allied species, have been used as a styptic 
in Germany, being imported from Sumatra. The similar 
hairs of other species of Dicksonia, natives of the Sand- 
wich Islands, are exported, to the extent of many thou- 
sands of pounds annually, under the name of Pulu, and 
are employed in the stuffing of mattresses, cushions, &c. : 
and the hairs of D. Culci'a are used in like manner in 
Madeira. Not more than two or three ounces of hair are 
yielded by each plant, and it is reckoned that about four years must elapse before another 
gathering can be obtained. 
SCYTIIIAN LAMB ( copied from the titlefage of 
Parkinson's “ Paradisus," 1629). 
