FERNS AND SELAGINELLAS. 
At an earlier period in the world's history forests of tree 
ferns covered considerable portions of Great Britain and the 
United States, but at the present time they occur only in the 
warm regions of both hemispheres, and are most abundant 
in Australia and New Zealand. Our collection contains a 
number of these Australasian tree ferns, Alsophilas and Dick- 
sonias, the latter cousins germain to the little hayscented fern 
(Dicksonia pilosiuscula) of Pennsylvania pastures. Of historical 
interest too is Dicksonia Barometz from Siam, once famous as 
the "vegetable lamb," that prodigy reported by imaginative 
eastern travelers in the days of old — half beast, half plant — 
springing from the earth like other vegetables, but bearing a 
strange fruit in the form of a wooly lamb which turned about 
upon the parent stem and nibbled the grass. All this legend 
was based upon the wool-covered rootstocks. 
Distinctive too are the climbing ferns (Lygodiums) and the 
rampant Acrostichum tenuifolium which is scraml)ling over 
everything within reach. Besides the common Boston fern 
(Nephrolepis bostoniensis) a score of other forms of Nephrolepis 
will be found, also many varieties of Maiden-hair (Adiantum) 
and Polypody (Polypodium). 
In the glass cases are filmy ferns which need an atmosphere 
saturated with moisture such as exists on the Irish coast or in 
tropical valleys near water falls where the mist continually 
plays over the foliage. 
The Selaginellas or club mosses are closely related to the 
ferns, and are usually distinguished by minute scale-like 
leaves. They vary in height, from the tiny Selaginella emiliana, 
often seen as a table decoration, to S. Wildenovii, the climbing 
club moss, which is rambling over several of the tree fern 
stems. 
