154 



JODENAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 29, 18C7. 



those which are of a size rather above the half size produce 

 the evenest and finest crop. By planting only well-ripened 

 whole Potatoes a much better crop is obtained than from sets 

 that have been subjected to the removal of the sprouts and to 

 cutting ; besides, fewer blanks are observed in the rows, and 

 disease, to a certain extent, is obviated. 



There are certain sorts which are known to resist the disease 

 better than others, subject, perhaps, to seasons and localities. 

 These kinds are, however, often of inferior quality. 



I will mention a few of the varieties which I grow for early 

 and late purposes. For frame work the old Ash-leaved Kidney 

 and Hardy's Prince Albert answer better than any other kinds 

 that I have tried. The latter is somewhat the earlier of the 

 two. Myatt's Ash-leaved Kidney is a favourite which I never 

 lose sight of. Wheeler's Milky White is an excellent second 

 early sort. The three years that I have grown it not one 

 diseased Potato has been found. The Dalmahoy is a large 

 cropper, and where a large family is to be supplied all the year 

 round it is invaluable. The Coldstream Early is an excellent- 

 flavoured and handsome Potato, but not earlier with me than 

 second early sorts. The old Fortyfold, for flavour and every 

 good quality, has, perhaps, not yet been eclipsed by newer and 

 more puffed-up varieties. It, however, requires good cultiva- 

 tion to have it large and fine. There are various other old and 

 well-tried kinds that I would not give up for some of the recent 

 introductions. 



These remarks may induce others to throw out hints on Po- 

 tato culture — a subject which is far from being exhausted. — 

 W. H. C. 



LLANBEEIS AND ITS FERNS. 



" Be sure you bring me a lot of Asplenium viride and a 

 Holly Fern or two," said a friend to me, as I was starting for 

 a tour in North Wales; and another friend chimed in, "And 

 don't forget me if you should fall in with Woodsia and Asplenium 

 septentrionale in some of your rambles." 



"All right," said I, "I am going to the land of Ferns;" 

 but I laughed in my sleeve at the grand ideas of those who only 

 knew what Fern-hunting was by name. 



Years ago, and Fern-hunting about Snowdon was not only 

 Fern-hunting, but Fern-finding. Now all is changed, " pteri- 

 domania " has seized upon young and old, and people who 

 hardly know a Fern fiom a flowering plant, nil! have a fernery 

 because it is the fashion to have one. And why not? It is 

 true they cannot be worried to look for the Ferns, but they are 

 quite ready to give the best price to those who will take the 

 trouble off their hands. So Fern-hunting has become a trade, 

 and little tables set out with rare and dainty Ferns stand by 

 cottage doors, and instead of giving a nurseryman a couple of 

 shillings for a Fern raised from seed, you give one shilling to a 

 poor man who finds Fern-collecting more profitable than field 

 labour, and ruthlessly seizes on all the rare Ferns he can find, 

 drags them from their hiding places, and thanks Providence 

 for the " fashion " that brings meat and white bread to a 

 cottage where it has seldom been seen before. 



There is also, I fear, a darker side to the picture, for I have 

 heard of Ferns once accessible to the botanist in a morning's 

 ramble, being removed from his path to safer localities, so that 

 hiirried visitors may be compelled to Icuy if they are deter- 

 mined to have ; but I hope this is of very rare occurrence, and 

 I only mention it to show how much danger an indigenous 

 plant may stand of being exterminated from a country. 



Yet in spite of all these disadvantages. Nature has ways of 

 her own cf repairing, in a wonderful manner, the ravages of 

 man, and in many a wild nook, and on many a mountain 

 height, rare and beautiful Ferns still exist in the neighbour- 

 hood of Llanberis ; Ferns that look none the less tempting, in 

 that they are only to be found after toilsome, and sometimes 

 even hazardous scrambles. 



Bat it is not the Ferns alone of Llanberis that are so charm- 

 ing ; flowering plants are not outdone by their acrogenous 

 neighbours, and each month of the sweet spring-tide ushers in 

 the fair blossoming of many a mountain plant. Nor is it the 

 vegetable world that constitutes the only spell that yearly 

 attracts so many Saxons to the land of the Cymri. The grand 

 old mountains, now partially veiled by fleecy clouds, now 

 tawering above them heavenwards, now as if blottedout from the 

 face of creation, have a voice of their own, a power of attraction, 

 not given in like measure to any other created thing. And then 

 there are the people, so unlike other people in their trusting 

 simplicity, their grateful recognition of any little service done 



them, with their broken English, or their rich guttural Cym- 

 raeg, their picturesque costume (fast dying out), and their 

 simple cottages dotted over the mountain side. Yes, it is the 

 people, the mountains, and the plants, that together form the 

 charm of Wales. 



Here and there, amongst the very poor, you meet with a 

 nature-formed botanist. I found such an one, and had to 

 blush again and again at my own poor and lazily-acquired 

 attainments, as he explained to me, in broken English, through 

 what difficulties he had climbed the tree of knowledge, his 

 ' ' dim Saesneg," and dim Latin standing in his way at every step. 



I asked my poor friend to come and see my collection of dried 

 Ferns, and never shall I forget the look of keen enjoyment 

 that passed over his intelligent face, as form after form of the 

 curious and grotesque varieties appeared. Every now and 

 then he looked up at the Welsh landlady who also came for a 

 peep, with some quaint remark. 



" Mrs. Thomas, tell the lady that though I am a poor man, 

 I would not take five pounds for this grand sight." Or, 



" Mrs. Thomas, tell the lady these are better to me than my 

 dinner." (I had ordered him a good one.) 



After a time the climax came. " Mrs. Thomas, tell the lady 

 I shall take her to see Asplenium germanicum, where I did 

 take Mr. Babiugton. Y'es, indeed, she shall go, for of all the 

 people I ever did see she is the biggest whatever." 



So I went, bound to secrecy, and with my eyes metapho- 

 rically bandaged till I should arrive at a given spot ; a long 

 drive, a steep ascent, and then, " Yes, indeed, we must climb 

 up there (far away in cloud-land), and we must have a rope, 

 and ." 



It is a fact, that Mr. Babington, under the guidance of my 

 friend, did see Asplenium germanicum in its mountain home ; 

 but it is, alas ! also a fact, that my coward heart failed me, and 

 I did vot see it, though I have two fronds gathered from it. I 

 would not even ask for a plant, for A. germanicum is very rare 

 as a British species, and I would not willingly have one habitat 

 destroyed. 



" Well, indeed," said my friend, as I ignominiously retreated, 

 " but it is a great pity whatever." 



However, I consoled myself with A. septentrionale (the very 

 finest I ever saw), and Woodsia ilvensis dragged from its fast- 

 ness by steadier hands and head than mine, and with a basket- 

 load of AUosorus crispus, that grows in wondrous tufts of 

 brilliant green amidst the slate debris of the grand old Glyder 

 Fawr. 



On the same range of mountains, not far removed from Twl 

 Dii, or the Devil's Kitchen, was the rare Lloydia serotina, in fruit 

 at the time of my visit. It has been found in the same locality 

 for very many years, and exists there still, thanks to the break- 

 neck or otherwise evil character of the locality where it makes 

 its home. 



Descending from Twl Du to Llyn Ogwen, whose dark waters 

 lie guarded on every side by still darker mountains, we find by 

 the side of the mountain streams Asplenium viride, and we 

 may notice, if we search diligently, that a few stray plants of 

 this little Fern have rooted themselves, together with Asple- 

 nium trichomanes, in the interstices of the stone wall which 

 guards the waters of the lake ; but I would earnestly hope that 

 these few visitors may be left to live unmolested. In the same 

 wall Cystopteris fragilis still grows, but there is not much left, 

 and I fear ere long it will be a thing of the past as regards this 

 locality. 



Beneath the boulders of rock on the hillside, I found Poly- 

 podium dryopteris intermingled with Hymenophyllum Wilsoni. 

 P. phegopteris is to be found in abundance nearly everywhere. 

 Of Lastrea montana you become very wearied, it is far more 

 abundant than L. Filix-mas, and there are numberless forms of 

 A. Filix-ffomina, some crested, some laciniate, some decom- 

 pound, and all full of grace and beauty. Blechnum or Lomaria 

 spicant grows sparingly about the bogs, which are bordered 

 in places with a pretty star-like Saxifrage (S. stellaris). 



But to return to Llanberis and its glorious Pass, where riven 

 mountains lay strewed about in grand confusion. Keeping to 

 the range of the Glyder, we find Meconopsis cambrica and 

 Pinguicula vulgaris, this last growing to a large size, and, as 

 you cear the bead of the Pass, in such quantities that the 

 ground is blue with them. On the opposite, or Snowdon side 

 of the Pass, Nature has dealt out her treasures even more 

 lavishly. There I gathered TroUius europo3us, with its crowded 

 yellow petals making it look so like a " double " flower. There, 

 too, I found Saxifraga stellaris, AlchemiUa vulgaris, and plenty 

 of Ferns. 



