There were some superb plants of the glossy tropical-looking bird's-
nest fern, or Asplenium Nidus, which makes its home on the stems and
branches of trees, and brightens the forest with its great shining
fronds. I got a specimen from a koa tree. The plant had nine
fronds, each one measuring from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 7 inches in
length, and from 7 to 9 inches in breadth. There were some very
fine tree-ferns (Cibotium Chamissoi?), two of which being
accessible, we measured, and found them seventeen and twenty feet
high, their fronds eight feet long, and their stems four feet ten
inches in circumference three feet from the ground. They showed the
most various shades of green, from the dark tint of the mature
frond, to the pale pea green of those which were just uncurling
themselves. I managed to get up into a tree for the first time in
my life to secure specimens of two beautiful parasitic ferns
(Polypodium tamariscinum and P. Hymenophylloides?). I saw for the
first time, too, a lygodium and the large climbing potato-fern
(Polypodium spectrum), very like a yam in the distance, and the
Vittaria elongata, whose long grassy fronds adorn almost every tree.
The beautiful Microlepia tenuifolia abounded, and there were a few
plants of the loveliest fern I ever saw (Trichomanes meifolium), in
specimens of which I indulged sparingly, and almost grudgingly, for
it seemed unfitting that a form of such perfect beauty should be
mummied in a herbarium.
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