82 
BRITISH FERNS. 
“ The fern which produces the Pulu,” he quotes, “ grows 
on all the high lands of the Sandwich Islands, at an 
elevation of about one thousand feet ; though found 
more or less in the five principal islands, the trade in it 
is chiefly confined to the districts of Hilo, Hamakua, and 
Puna, in Hawaii. The Pulu is produced round the 
stalk, where the stem or leaf shoots out from the stock 
of the fern, and only a small quantity is found on each 
plant, amounting to two or three ounces. It takes four 
years for the plant to reproduce this amount. The num- 
ber of persons, including men, women, and children, 
engaged in gathering Pulu, varies from two to three 
thousand. The labour of gathering the material is very 
tedious. When picked, it is wet, and has to be laid to 
dry on racks or mats. Facilities for drying, packing, and 
shipping are improving every year, and the article is 
now shipped dry and in good order, closely packed in 
wool bales.” (Mr. M. C. Cooke.) 
Early writers have described, as one of the marvels 
of nature, a Vegetable Lamb . This is now ascertained 
to be a fern. The silky down, analogous to the Pulu, 
covers the undeveloped fronds and the caudex thickly 
and in great abundance. The “ Lamb,” says Mr. Moore, 
“ consists merely of the decumbent shaggy caudex of a 
fern, which it has been supposed is that of Cibotium 
Barometz ; when turned upside down, the bases of four 
of its fronds being retained as legs, by the aid of a little 
manipulation, this not inaptly resembles some small 
animal, and may fairly rank as a vegetable curiosity.” 
The entire acceptance of the Travellers* Wonder re- 
garding this so-called Vegetable Lamb is proved and 
enlarged upon by Darwin ; in his quaint poem upon the 
c Leaves of the Plowers * he thus writes 
