Dicksonia

The propriety of including a tree fern in this work is perhaps open to question, but D. antarctica provides in some gardens of the west an exotic feature of great beauty scarcely comparable with any other there. It is the only tree fern at all commonly seen in gardens and then only in the dampest and mildest parts. But Cyathea dealbata, the best known of the New Zealand tree ferns, thrives just as well as the dicksonia at Rossdohan in Co. Kerry, Eire. It is well distinguished by its fronds, which are vividly white to glaucous beneath.

Dicksonia has about twenty species in Australasia and the larger Pacific Islands. Cyathea is a much larger genus, distributed in the tropical and subtropical parts of both the New and the Old Worlds.