FERNS. 



41 



HYMENOPHYLLUM. 



their edges are un- 



Cornwall, I heard of a wood where the Tunbridge Filmy- 

 Fern (Hpnenophyllum tunbridgense, Plate IV., Jig. i). 

 was to be found. We followed the course of the river 

 first through hilly woods, and then along a shady road : 

 then came a thicker and darker wood, with rocks here 

 and there, and there was the ^ 



wee Fern nrino'lino* with the 

 Mosses, and scarcely distin- 

 guishable from them. The 

 texture of the leaflets is 

 nearly transparent, and the 

 veins are very strong. The 

 tiny cups containing the 

 spores are seated on the leaf- 

 let near its juncture with the stem 

 evenly jagged. I have since received beautiful specimens 

 from the neighbourhood of Bridgewater. 



Wilson's Filmy-Fern (H. Wilsoni) did not crown my 

 search till later. I was rambling on the coast of Arran, 

 and dividing my attention between the beach and its pre- 

 cious wreck, and the old coast line of rocks with their 

 verdant inhabitants. Here it was that the Lastrea 

 Fcenisecii was growing in such luxuriance ; and in the 

 very cave of which it was the gate-keeper I found AA il- 

 son's Filmy-Fern, clothing the moist sides as a curtain. 

 Here the pinnae turn to one side, and the-tiny fruit-cups 

 stand on minute steins, the margin being cut into two 

 equal points. Passing through the village of Currie, with 

 my arms full of these treasures, a " daft body ' came up 

 to me, and looking very kindly in my face, she asked, 

 "Will these be Fairns, then?" I answered in the 



