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New Zealand Ferns 
villages. I have often seen it crested at the tips of the 
fronds. Wild pigs are said to have nearly exterminated 
it, and the existence of the few surviving plants is 
threatened by horses and cattle, who browse upon the 
succulent leaves, and that enemy whom nothing daunts 
— the fern collector! 
It is easily grown, but will not bear frost. A great 
favourite for indoor cultivation. The broad, handsome 
fronds look as well in a hall, and give as tropical an 
aspect, as do young palm trees. In Auckland they grow 
so fast that, after three or four years, they become too 
large for the house, and have to be taken outside. They 
may be propagated by sets cut from the tuberous roots, 
as one treats potatoes. I knew a gentleman who took an 
especial pride in his para ; on my last visit he showed me 
into his large drawing-room. The fern monopolised 
more than half the apartment ; he had to make shift with 
what was left. 
The species, though large in New Zealand, is almost 
gigantic in the tropics. I have seen them filling a gully 
in the jungle with radiating fronds from 20 to 30 feet 
long by 15 feet broad, a picture of tropical luxuriance 
I never saw surpassed. It is a wide-spread tropical and 
semi-tropical plant. 
