JUNE. 209 



mentioned by G-RAHAME, in his "Birds of Scotland," 

 which, as true to nature, we shall quote such roman- 

 tic pictures give a zest to the labours of the botanist, 

 and rouse his reflective powers. 



" What dreadful cliffs o'erhang this little stream ! 



1 So loftily they tower, that he who looks 

 Upward, to view their almost meeting summits } 

 Feels sudden giddiness, and instant grasps 

 The nearest fragment of the channel rocks, 

 Resting his aching eye on some green branch 

 That midway down shoots from the crevic'd crag. 

 Athwart the narrow chasm fleet flies the rack, 

 Each cloud no sooner visible than gone." 



It is in romantic solitudes like this that the fragrant 

 "MAIDEN-HAIRS" delight to dwell, decorating the 

 rocks with their slender fronds, and giving a vivid 

 verdure to them, especially if within the reach of 

 oozing moisture or bubbling water-break. In such 

 situations we have often seen and gathered Aspleniwn 

 viride, once singularly covering a fallen mountain ash 

 with verdant tracery in the deep hollow below Pont 

 Henrhyd near Grlyn JSTeath. The fronds of A. viride 

 have as the specific name implies green stalks, while 

 the scented but more common A. trickomanes have 

 deep purple ones, as is also the case with A. adiantum- 

 nigrwn, both lovers of rocky lanes, the latter often 

 strikingly variegated with white. The rare Lanceolate 

 Spleenwort (Asplenium lanceolatum) , has in perfection 

 very finely cut pinnae, forming a verdant object de- 

 lightful to the exploring eye on the rocks where it 

 vegetates. This local fern is plentiful about Barmouth 

 in Merionethshire, once its undesecrated reign, but 

 now intruding roads have cut through and broken up 

 rocks that had lain untouched from eldest time, and 



p 



