79 



fringed more or less all the way with ferns, I need hardly 

 say that a four-mile speed was not maintained, especially 

 since no less than three promising finds rewarded my 

 investigations, viz. a congested form of Lastvea montana, a 

 variegated form of L. pseiido-mas^ and a crispate specimen 

 of the same spacies ; both these last in the same stone dyke. 

 The day previous, wandering by the Moness water, I 

 found, and took home in my handkerchief, a remarkably 

 fine specimen of the prickly Shield, the fine points of which 

 were much appreciated when I handed the bundle over for 

 inspection, and a hedgehog rolled out upon the carpet, after 

 being dropped like a hot potato on account of the points in 

 question. L. montana trimcata, with its square and thorny 

 tips, fell twice to my lot at Aberfeldy, and twice 

 again at Strathblane, my next stopping- place. A very 

 large plant of this variety I installed in my host's 

 garden at Aberfeldy, and named it Auld Hornie, as 

 a fitting and descriptive local cognomen. On the Ken- 

 more road I found L. filix-mas mediodeficiens, a form with 

 all the central pinnae reduced to knobs. Considering, 

 however, that I assiduously hunted for more than a week, 

 I came again to the conclusion, as I had done on previous 

 occasions, that the ferns are not very sportive in the 

 district, my "bag" being confined to the finds already 

 cited. At Strathblane, where in previous years Atliyviiim 

 fiUx-fcemiua vevolvens, deltoidcum and medio -defic lens had fallen 

 to my lot, I was more fortunate^ two very handsome forms 

 of Lastvea filix-mas rewarding my search, one extremely 

 foliosc and perfectly barren, and the other with lanceolate 

 pinnce. These a ramose and a serrate Blechnum, a very 

 foliosc Lastvea montana, and a curious for.n of the same 

 species, with some fronds splashed with yellow, and other 

 fronds entirely lemon-coloured, constituted no bad reward 

 for my pains. 



While staying here I profited by my nearness to the 

 spot where that wonderful lady fern A.f.-f, VictovicB was 



