13 



ciently to hear him ask whether I was hurt, since he had 

 imagined that I must be struggling in mortal agony and 

 had come back to see if he could assist me. Thanking him 

 for his kindness and releiving his mind by an explanation, 

 we bade each other good e\'ening, he rode on and I pro- 

 ceeded to shoulder my booty and return to my temporary 

 nest. 



As a rule the acquisition of a new find consists merely in 

 digging it up, extricating it from its common associates and 

 packing it in paper, adding moss or grass, or something of 

 that kind, damped if possible, to preserve its freshness, 

 since I have great faith in preventing an acquisition from 

 getting dry, so much vitality is lost if this precaution be 

 neglected. It may, however, happen that the find is an old- 

 established mass of so unwieldly a nature as to require 

 assistance. A case of this kind stands out vividly in my 

 memory as I write. One Sunday morning, leaving my fern 

 trow^el religiously behind me to secure me from tempta- 

 tion, I came to a brook on the edge of Dartmoor with 

 sloping banks, dotted here and there with clumps of 

 Lastvea montana, seen from an elevated path. Scanning 

 these clumps, one of them, some 20 yards away at the edge 

 of the brook strikes me as "funny-looking," something odd 

 and unlike the rest. Walking rapidly down the slope closer 

 investigation reveals that I have found a most beautifully 

 tasselled and slender growing variety, a gem of the first 

 water. (L. montana cvistato-gvacile, Dvuevy.) The clump 

 however, is about a yard through, a dense mass of 

 many crowms, altogether unportable ; what is to be done ? 

 Carefully noting the surroundings and putting a frond into 

 my hat to show to my better half, staying in the adjacent 

 village, I return, but can hardly persuade her that I have 

 made such a discovery until later in the day we return to 

 the spot and she finds it again in proof of my sincerity. 

 The next morning I engage a man, with a stout fork, to 

 assist me in lifting the plant, but neither he nor 1 can move 

 it until a quarry cart and driver coming along, we enlist 

 their services and eventually lift en masse i^ cwts. of fern 



