FERNS. 



39 



Beside the sloe's black-knotted thorn, 

 What hour the Baptist stern was born — 

 That hour when heaven's breath is still — 

 I'll seek the shaggy fern-clad hill, 

 Where time has delved a dreary dell, 

 Befitting best a hermit's cell, 

 And watch, mid murmurs muttering stern, 

 The seed departing from the fern, 

 Ere wakeful demons can convey 

 The wonder-working charm away, 

 And tempt the blows from arm unseen, 

 Should thoughts unholy intervene." 



The Maiden-hair represents the last family of Ferns 

 in the Aspidiaceae group. Here the spore-masses are 

 narrow, and curved into the 

 form of a crescent. Our one 

 native species, Adiantum ca- 

 pillus- Veneris (Plate IV., Jig. 

 3), is very rare, being only 

 found wild in Cornwall, De- 

 vonshire, South Wales, Ireland, 

 and the Isle of Arran off Gal- 

 way. It is the most graceful 

 of all the Ferns. Its stems are dark purple, slender 

 enough to suggest the idea of hair, and quivering under 

 the weight of the fan-shaped leaflets. My specimen 

 came from Ilfracombe ; but I had not the delight of 

 finding it. The donkey-women make a monopoly of it, 

 and sell it to all Fern-lovers. It was in vain to coax 

 and wheedle, to promise a larger sum for the pleasure of 

 gathering it myself. The woman who brought it at last 

 dilated largely on the difficulty of reaching the spot 



ADIAXTUM. 



