MARCH. 87 



RAMBLES IN THE WEST IN SEARCH OF WILD PLANTS. 



The country is now assuming a gay appearance, on account of the 

 fresh flowers and new growths which are daily on the increase. The 

 Furze is becoming truly beautiful, and the hedges are thickly spangled 

 with the bright lilac of the Dog Violet, intermixed with the starry 

 blossoms of the Primrose in every variety of colour, from a pale 

 creamy white to a vivid crimson. The Whitethorn too enlivens the 

 wayside with its brilliant masses ; and the mildness of the weather 

 gives an assurance that the spring has really arrived, and each day 

 increases the idea that all severe weather is a thing which has been. 

 But let not our gardening friends be too sanguine ; for unless the 

 opening blossom be protected, the cold drying winds and morning 

 frosts will in one night destroy all hopes of fruit for the ensuing 

 season. A close examination of the hedges will shew the young 

 fronds of the various Ferns uncurling their crooks ; and if we search 

 the cliffs, we find the same thing going on among the Aspleniums 

 marinum and lanceolatum, in the interstices of the rocks into which 

 they have firmly rooted, sometimes accompanied by plants of Scolo- 

 pendrium vulgare. The two former, from being scarce varieties in 

 the more eastern part of the country, demand a passing notice. The 

 Asplenium marinum is found, I believe, near Torquay, and occurs at 

 intervals the whole length of the southern coast of Cornwall, and, 

 again, more abundantly on the northern coast, from the neighbour- 

 hood of Morvah towards the east, and probably for some distance 

 into the Bristol Channel. The Asplenium lanceolatum is confined 

 to the coasts more to the westward ; I have never heard of its having 

 been found to the eastward of St. Austell, and even there very spar- 

 ingly ; but in the parish of Creed I have found it upon old walls, as 

 also in the neighbourhood of Probus ; and it gradually increases in 

 abundance as it approaches the •' Lizard," where its fronds attain the 

 length of six inches ; and in all the country around Penzance it has 

 ensconced itself on every wall and hedge, and continues in the same 

 abundance round the Land's End to St. Ives and to St. Eval, where 

 it again gradually becomes more scarce. This Fern has often been 

 confounded with the common Adiantum nigrum ; but a very little 

 examination will shew its distinctness, — it has a very different out- 

 line of frond : in lanceolatum the lower pinnoe are far shorter than 

 those above them, and all the pinna3 are nearly at right angles with 

 the rachis. But 1 will not enter into the botanical differences at 

 present, because I do not wish to frighten beginners from inter- 

 esting themselves in British plants with abstruse botanical distinc- 

 tions, which in time will no doubt gradually become interesting. 

 First gain an interest, and then the learning will be mere pleasure. 



Tregonning. Jesse Barkagweneth. 



