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NATIVE FERNS: WHY NOT! 



By The Rev. Canon H. Kingsmill Moore, D.D. 



Everyone who rides a hobby is disposed to express 

 wonder as to why so few get up and ride beside him ; 

 perhaps better results may be obtained by endeavouring to 

 picture the attraction of the hobby which carries us so well. 



My hobby runs in the shape of Native Ferns. Our Native 

 Ferns enjoy the double advantage of being accessible 

 and manageable — they are, as a rule, easy to get and easy 

 to keep. There is no county in Ireland without its ferns, 

 and few which cannot boast them in abundance. To 

 stand at Killarney among Osmundas which reach to your 

 shoulder, to see the walls and the trunks of trees iti Cork 

 rich with miniature forests of the common Polypody, to 

 wade in a Sligo glen through roods of amazing Harts- 

 tongues, experiences such as these are enough to captivate 

 even a Cockney tourist. But such exceptional prodigality 

 is not needed to win and keep our Irish hearts. It is a 

 day of incessant rain ; I have just come for a week among 

 the Carlingford Mountains, and time will not w^ait. 

 Accordingly, I mock at the blasts and the waters ; the 

 hedges and the walls I want to explore give useful cover, 

 and in less than an hour three of our Spleenworts have 

 welcomed me. A similar walk in the afternoon adds four 

 more species, and this in midwinter. There are plenty of 

 signs to show that were it summer the list would have 

 been still further increased. 



Of course all the species noticed are common. I have 

 been trying to emphasise the accessibility of our ferns. One 

 of the specimens, however, is seen to depart in a marked 

 way from the normal form ; it is as it were a *' variety " 

 in the making. 



Here we come in contact with an inexhaustible source 

 of interest. The number of native species is small, under 



