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11. — A Few Woeds about ofe Local Fekns. 

 By John E. Littleboy. 

 [Read llth November, 1875.] 



Of late years no branch of Botany has been more popular, I 

 might almost say fashionable, than the study of Ferns. I do not 

 know that the Fern mania rages quite so determinately at present 

 as it did some ten years ago, but it is yet impossible to visit either 

 Wales or Scotland without meeting, at almost every turn, enter- 

 prising ladies, trowel in hand, laden with baskets containing their 

 favourites, intent, no doubt, on the creation of charming little 

 ferneries in certain garden corners far off in England. It is rather 

 amusing to notice how carefully the very commonest varieties arc 

 not unfrequently bought from the fern-women at Llandudno and 

 other popular Welsh watering-places, and brought home with con- 

 siderable trouble, to be planted in garden ferneries, when they 

 might have been procured far more readily, and certainly at con- 

 siderably less expense, in the nearest lane or hedgerow. 



After all, it matters but little. To those who are unable to dis- 

 tinguish the different varieties, the commonest fern that grows is 

 just as beautiful as the rarest, and when once a taste for the culti- 

 vation of ferns is thoroughly acquired, a knowledge, more or less 

 perfect, of the different species is almost certain to follow. 



I am sorry that I can lay but slight claim to the name of 

 "Botanist," so far as its scientific attributes are concerned, but 

 I have been a collector of ferns from my school-days to the j)Z'esent 

 time, and it is impossible for me to exaggerate the pleasure that I 

 have derived fi'om the pursuit. There is scarcely an English fern 

 that is not intimately associated with some pleasant episode in my 

 past life, — some mountain scramble, some walking tour, some 

 rugged sea-girt rock, or possibly some companionship ever to be 

 remembered with pleasure. 



I shall only attempt to notice this evening those varieties of our 

 ferns that I have, at different times, collected on this side of Hert- 

 fordshire. 



There are, in all, between forty and fifty pretty distinct species 

 of British ferns. I have had about thirty-eight of these growing 

 successfully under cultivation ; but as far as I am aware, only about 

 eighteen are indigenous in Hertfordshire. I will briefly notice 

 each species and variety that I have met with seriatim. 



1. Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum. — This ornamental little fern, 

 tolerably common in Hertfordshire, is one of the species eagerly 

 collected by amateurs. It is to be found generally in dry sheltered 

 lanes ; it springs up very frequently from under some old stump, 

 or from between stones slightly separated by loamy soil ; it re- 

 quires considerable shade, and the size of its fi'onds is principally 

 dependent on the conditions under which it grows. Under favour- 



