I fancy that the different species of this graceful genus require very different temperatures, though all like boggy soil; but of one fact I am quite sure, that in Gleichenia dicarpa we have a species which would brave the British winters without protection. It ascends to the very limits of snow in the Australian alps, fringing beautifully the coldest brooks, and delighting to be bathed in the cool water as it rises from time to time when snow or rain are augmented. Whoever has a spring in a shady glen of Britain could rear this Gleichenia, and keep it without any winter covering; indeed, this Fern might be naturalised in your forests unless perhaps it be suffocated by stronger native plants.
Ferd. von Mueller, Melbourne.
Gleichenia dicarpa
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Home correspondence', Gardeners' chronicle, 4 December 1880, p. 728 (B80.12.01), and is headed 'Gleichenias'.
Please cite as “FVM-80-10-00a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on