FERXS. 2 



.: / 



without verdure (A. rata-muraria, Plate III., fig. 6). 

 This was the same Fern which we had gathered on the 

 bridge ; it resembles, both in form and colour, the leaf 

 of its godmother, the garden Rue. It is very common 

 in walls, being very abundant about Eichmond, Edin- 

 burgh, Yatton, and indeed most places where limestone 

 is used. But it, as well as its two brothers, the Forked 

 and Alternate Spleen worts, is very difficult to cultivate. 

 It will plant itself in a brick or other wall, and flourish 

 despite a thick covering of dust and cobwebs ; but you 

 may take the greatest pains to coax it in the fernery, and 

 yet fail entirely. You may plant it in fine sand, or in 

 mould mixed with sand ; you may shade it and water 

 it ; you may give it full sunshine, and let it be parched, 

 or shade it with greatest care : but you cannot at all 

 calculate on the probability of its life. I have known it 

 carried to a pet fernery with the stones from the wall on 

 which it grew, and be cemented among those stones 

 again : I have known it flourish the first year — its year 

 of difficulty, as one would suppose — and die next year, 

 when every one would imagine that all was in its favour. 

 If it have good drainage, and the bricks among which it 

 was born, it may possibly live ; without these it is sure 

 to die. 



It was vain to hope to find either the Sea or Spear- 

 shaped Spleenwort in those inland dales ; but at a sub- 

 sequent period I had the pleasure of coming into 

 possession of both. The Sea Spleenwort (A. marinum, 

 Plate III, fig. 4), I have found in caves at Dawlish, 

 hanging from the roof like verdant drapery. The fronds 

 varied in length from three to eight inches, of a vivid 



