16 
FERNS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 
Progressing westwards we come to the two strangely 
isolated islands in the Southern Atlantic, St. Helena 
and Ascension. From the former of these we have As- 
plenium compressum, introduced by Mr. Thomas Fraser 
in 1825, and Asplenium redinatum, brought borne by 
Dr. J. D. Hooker on his return from Sir John Ross’s 
Antarctic expedition in 1 844 ; together witb Lomaria 
alpina and L. Magellanica from the Falkland Islands; 
while from Ascension Mr. Wren sent numerous fine 
plants of Marattia purpurescens in 1848. 
From Australia several individuals have been con- 
tributors. Grammitis Australis was received from the 
Sydney garden in 1833, when under the direction of 
Mr. Richard Cunningham ; and Mr. Charles Moore, 
the present Director of that garden, has also intro- 
duced several, including Trichiocarpa Hoorei, from 
New Caledonia, while to Mr. Bidwill we owe the 
curious Plat y cerium grande. But some of the most 
beautiful of the Australian Ferns, such as the Glei- 
dienias, were transmitted to this country by Mr. 
Walter Hill, the able Director of the Botanic 
Garden of Brisbane, in the rapidly rising colony of 
Queensland, who obtained them during his stay in 
Sydney in 1850. Two species of Gleicheniacece were, 
however, previously known in our gardens, — the Glei- 
chenia microphylla and G. flabellata, both of which, 
together with several other Ferns, were sent from 
Tasmania, in 1845, by Mr. Ronald Gunn. 
About the year 1841 or 1842, some very fine Ferns, 
including two Tree-Ferns, the Didcsonia squarrosa and 
Cyathea moduli aris, were brought from New Zealand, 
where they had been collected by Mr. J. Edgerly, a 
gardener, who had proceeded to that country on 
