DISTRIBUTION OF FERNS. 
93 
exceptive cases that they prefer exposure. Indeed, a 
dry and exposed situation generally dwarfs the size and 
detracts from the grace of contour in any fern accus- 
tomed to a more sheltered position, and in this lies the 
secret of most of our varieties. 
The arborescent ferns are those which exercise the 
greatest influence in the beauty of the landscape. Like 
noble Palms they stand, their plumy capitals unequalled 
in grace and elegance, their stately columns chiselled 
with diamond-shaped indentations where old stems have 
fallen off. The sites chosen for their home are valleys 
and terraces, often at great elevations, from two to three 
thousand feet above the sea. The shrubby ferns have 
also an influence in the external beautv of the surround- 
ing landscape. In New Zealand and the South Sea 
Islands their boles attain a height of ten or twelve feet, 
their verdant plumes rise many feet higher and then arch 
outwards or droop towards earth ; the well-developed 
fronds from twelve to eighteen feet in length. Ferns, 
either arborescent or shrubby, must ever be objects of 
striking beauty, whether they are seen standing in lone 
magnificence, or clothing the banks of the raging torrent, 
and mingling their feathery foliage with the spiny leaves 
of Aloes and Cactuses. Herbaceous ferns are those of 
the temperate zones, and none of these attain a very 
great height; perhaps our Osmunda regalis , in its ten feet 
glory, on the banks of Loch Fine, is as striking an object 
as any of the herbaceous class found in the temperate 
regions of Europe, Asia, or North America. 
