55 



FERN HUNTING IN WINTER. 



The recommendation given on page 4 of our first volume 

 in connection with the above has been responded to by the 

 writer on many occasions, and I am, therefore, prepared to 

 substantiate the advantages therein referred to. 



The main advantage is, of course, the absence of all the 

 coarser forms of vegetation which are more or less of a 

 deciduous character. 



Evergreen Ferns, therefore, in the winter season have 

 fewer competitors, so to speak, and thus are more con- 

 spicuous and much easier to detect — so much so, in fact, 

 that hedge banks and bushy places that appeared fernless 

 in the leafy days are now revelations of cryptogamic beauty. 

 To the lover, then, of ferny haunts there is no time when 

 his favourite pursuit may not be carried on, even though the 

 fronds may sometimes scintillate with dew or frost. More- 

 over, as the majority of British ferns are evergreen under 

 favourable conditions, the loss or absence of deciduous 

 species hardly calls for comment here, and so I must 

 reiterate that to the retired student of Nature — especially 

 fern nature — opportunities are always present, while to 

 those who take more than a passing interest in the subject, 

 but can only occasionally afford a week-end or a Christmas 

 holiday in the country, there is no pteridological reason 

 why — weather permitting — a ramble or a fern hunt should 

 not be indulged in. 



Assuming, then, that the conditions are genial, that due 

 consideration is devoted to the " understandings," and 

 that the necessary outfit in the shape of, say, brown paper, 

 string, handfork or trowel, etc., be not ignored, then, with 

 such simple auxiliaries to success, success is more likely 

 to be assured. Fancy, on the other hand, coming across a 

 " good " thing and not having the wherewithal to remove 

 it, or, when removed, the facility of dispatch ! 



Recently I carried a big Hartstongue with twenty 

 18-inch fronds a distance of six miles; but what would 



