<hw>Fern-tree</hw>, <i>n.</i> Name applied to various species of ferns which grow to a large size, the stem in the fully grown plant reaching often a height of many feet before the leaves are given off. Such Tree-ferns clothe the sides of deep and shady gullies amongst the hills, and give rise to what are known as Fern-tree gullies, which form a very characteristic feature of the moister coastal Ranges of many parts of Australia. The principal <i>Fern-trees</i> or <i>Tree-ferns</i>, as they are indiscriminately called, of Australia and Tasmania are—
<i>Dicksonia antarctica</i>, Lab.; <i>Alsophila australis</i>, R. Br.; <i>Todea africana</i>, Willd.; <i>Cyathea cunninghami</i>, J. Hook.; <i>Alsophila excelsa</i>, R. Br.;
the last named, however, not occurring in Tasmania or Victoria.
1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 164:
"We entered a beautiful fern-tree grove, that also concealed the heavens from view, spreading like a plantation or cocoa-nut tree orchard, but with far more elegance and effect."
1839. C. Darwin, `Voyage of Beagle' (ed. 1890), p. 177:
"Tree-ferns thrive luxuriantly in Van Diemen's Land (lat. 45 degrees), and I measured one trunk no less than six feet in circumference. An arborescent fern was found by Forster in New Zealand in 46 degrees, where orchideous plants are parasitical on the trees. In the Auckland Islands, ferns, according to Dr. Dieffenbach, have trunks so thick and high that they may be almost called tree-ferns."
1857. F. R. Nixon (Bishop of Tasmania), `Cruise of the Beacon,' p. 26:
"With these they [i.e. the Tasmanian Aborigines] mingled the core or pith of the fern trees, <i>Cibotium Bollardieri</i> and <i>Alsophila Australis</i> (of which the former is rather astringent and dry for a European palate, and the latter, though more tolerable, is yet scarcely equal to a Swedish turnip.)"
1870. S. H. Wintle, `Fragments of Fern Fronds,' p. 39: