JUNE. 207 



(Oistopteris,) are a beautiful little family, with their 

 fine cut pinnae delighting the eye of the botanical 

 explorer wherever they are dragged from their obscure 

 retreats, which are often in the damp shady crevices 

 of rocks among massive stones in mountain ravines 

 where any one but a botanist would think there was 

 nothing but a fox, a rabbit, or a wheatear. There like 

 hermits they meditate in their hidden retreats, and 

 seem to cower from the garish eye of day. Yet occa- 

 sionally the C. fragilis adorns the works of man in 

 wild districts, as on the Devil's Bridge and neighbour- 

 ing walls near the cataracts of the Monach, Cardigan- 

 shire. The species of these delicate ferns are with 

 difficulty discriminated, since, according to exposure, 

 or shade and moisture, they differ in size from a 

 length of only two inches to twelve or fourteen, and 

 fronds with pinna} and pinnules of every intermediate 



an anxious look for Woodsia Ilvensis; at length, after much searching, 

 and a good wetting from the drip of the water from the huge basaltic 

 rocks, to my great joy I espied two small plants, which were instantly 

 secured ; a little farther on we saw three more under a bush of Prunus 

 Padus, but not liking to destroy the plant, we left the roots of these in the 

 crevice of the rock where they were growing." Phytologist, vol. i. p. 114. 

 Another botanist, (Mr. S. SIMPSON,) in the same useful periodical, testifies 

 to similar results the Woodsia and a wetting! "We found our track 

 hemmed in by the overladen Tees on our right hand, and the lofty basaltic 

 rocks, called Falcon Clints, on our left. My eye was now anxiously 

 directed to the face of these rocks to discover, if possible, the chief object 

 in taking our present course Woodsia Ilvensis. Rain now began to fall 

 heavily, and the wind, which had been all day very tempestuous, bore it 

 against us so as to render observation either of locality or objects, very 

 imperfect. However, after tracing as near as I can judge about 400 yards, 

 I espied some small specks of green through the broken fragments of a 

 stream which poured over the Clints, and under which I soon stood, 

 pulling hastily the patches I had seen, and these, to my delight, proved to 

 be two small plants of the Woodsia, mixed with a few fronds of Asplenium 

 viride and Cistopteris fragilis." The Woodsia, according to Mr. WILSON, 

 of Warrington, is also found near Llyn y Cwn, on the Glyder Mountain . 

 and Woodsia hyperborea on Clogwyn y-Garnedd, Snowdon. 



