December S, 1805. ] 



JOU^IAL OF HOBTICUIiTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



Were they apuiufonno ? I tliink certainly they ■were, and I 

 Bhall BO (■nil tliom till I have fuunJ another uame. I found 

 two, as 1 believe, distinct varietieB of Filix-fanniiia, having; 

 these singular li.sh-tail-like terminations. Formerly I should 

 contentedly have set them down as simply multifid varieties, 

 thinking " a Knse liy any other name would smell as sweet; " 

 but if Shakespeare Imd lived now-a-days he would never have 

 dared to have put that speech in the month of a Juliet, " what's 

 in a name," indeed? Wliy, so-called immortality. My fish 

 tails (some of tliem) have three points, if I am only quick 

 enough I may liave the honour of having added to Athyrium, 

 Fihx-ftemina odontomanes apua'forme, var. Nimrodiic. 



My Buokland discoveries were not solely confined to Athy- 

 riums, they extended to Aspleuiimi trichomanes, with fronds a 

 foot in length, the lower pinnae lobed and somewhat serrated, 

 one frond being branched like a little tree ; but tliough I 

 brought away the roots, having never before met with such 

 fine specimens, I put down the pecuhar formation as owing to 

 situation, because it only occorreJ in a marked degree hero 

 and there. 



The moorland Lastreas vary as much as the Athyriuma. I 

 fouud Lastrea oreopteris with serrated pinnides ; L. Pilix-niaa 

 with the ai)ex of the fronds and pinnsc forked ; L. dilatata in half 

 a dozen marked varieties ; also, if I mistake not, I found in a 

 low wood by the river's side, a dozen or more fine plants of 

 L. uligiuosa. I detected them at once, and my acquaintance 

 with uligiuosa has been small, by their finer texture, and the 

 peculiar look of the rachis and spinous pinna;. In the same 

 wood I found a beautiful specimen of L. Filix-mas crispa, with 

 the dark bright green pinna; overlapping each other like a well- 

 tiled house. This variety is very pleasing, because it cannot 

 well be mistaken for anything else ; the density of the pinna? 

 causes a sort of fan-like projection down the rachis, the efifect 

 of which is exceedingly pretty. 



Ashburton was our market town, where once a-week old 

 women and children bring in their pennyworths of garden 

 produce, and sitting down demurely before their baskets await 

 the half-famished visitors to the moor. A tew joints of meat 

 hang at unsavoury-looking stalls, and that is the market. But 

 the magic hour of this mai'ket is three o'clock. The good 

 genius is the onmibus, and the thing itself is fish. People diive 

 in from the distance of many miles to meet the fish, friends are 

 invited beforehand to eat it, and lo and behold sometimes there 

 is none ; but the old w"omen and children sit demurely on, with 

 a few Carrots, a Broccoli, an Apple, and an Onion before them, 

 and so " squalj pie " has to take the place of fish. 



The country round Ashburton and Buckland is most beau- 

 tifully wooded, and in this respect loses the peculiar character- 

 istics of moor land. One misses the wide soft sweep of Gorse 

 and Heather, and the melting grey of the granite tors. The 

 impression of mystery and eternity that the true moor cannot 

 fail to give is exchanged for the look of home, while the deep 

 stillness breaks into the happy voices of little children playing 

 about cottage doors, and the fresh breeze brings on its wings 

 the murmurs of the neighbouring river. 



I think my grandest day on the moor was that which I spent 

 at Grimspouud, a fortified aboriginal village, or primitive 

 British town, situated on the north-west slope of Hamildon, 

 and to which a moor boy steered my course by " reaves," and 

 " riding bogs," in a masterly manner, discoursing meanwhile 

 on the pleasures of rabbit coursing in winter time, and " hathe- 

 fell " shooting when "mate" was scarce, interspersed with 

 accounts of dangerous expeditions after " Hurts," when " little 

 sister and me lost our ways in a mist, and wandered hand-iu- 

 hand to a far-off village." 



Speculation has been very active as to Grimspound, andleamed 

 beads have been put together to decide on the merits of the va- 

 rious suppositions. In themselves the remains are exceedingly 

 curious ; a large circle of immense stones piled on each other 

 and covering nearly four acres of ground, encloses within its 

 walls a number of the hut circles I have before mentioned. 

 There are paved entrances opposite each other, and a stream of 

 water rising on the spot, is cunningly hidden and built over by 

 the wall, so that a supply of water was always at hand. The 

 wall, or circumvaUation, is in no part of any great height ; 

 indeed, it is so low, that the first feeling on seeing it is one of 

 disappointment, which after examination gives way to intense 

 interest, and you begin asking yourself, as the learned men do, 

 " What can it have been ? " Some answer, " A colossal Temple 

 of the Slur." Others refer it to the seat of judicature for one 

 of the early divisions of that part of Britain. Moor-men say, 

 Well, they stones be curious, and a biggish pound for cattle 



sure enough." But the best-sustained theory seems to be, 

 that Grimspound was built as a general place of protection for 

 the people to assemble in, when threatened by a common 

 danger. Hamildon beacon rises majesticaUy above the ruined 

 stronghold, commanding all the neighbourhood. A fire lighted 

 there would at once be a warning of danger, and a guide to 

 safety. The base of the rampart, in some parts, is said to be 

 20 feet broad, and the date given for the erection of the village, 

 before Christ. 



Most strange was the feeling that came over me, as I sat 

 resting on the ruins of the ancient dwellings of my people. 

 When Rome was building her majestic temples, her Colosseum, 

 hor fountains, and her palaces, my people were dwelling in 

 the rude huts before me, the same glorious hill sheltering 

 them, the same wild flowers and Mosses beneath their feet. A 

 few feathers from a blackcock's wings lay on the gi-ound by my 

 side, and gave me visions of savoury messes eaten on the very 

 same spot by my grand parents. As they ate did they quaff, 

 I wonder, the famous drink made in days gone by, from 

 Heather flowers ? or had they the Russian receipt for Whortle- 

 berry wine ? Sir Walter Scott states that in the memory of 

 old moor-fowl-shooters, they were regaled in remote shepherd 

 liuts by a " light, lively, and pleasant liquor brewed chiefly 

 from Heath flowers," and we read that in St. Petersburg a 

 drink made from Whortleberries is commonly sold in tlie streets. 



I cannot say that at Grimspound I felt altogether so proud 

 of my ancestors as I could have wished ; albeit, they displayed 

 much cunning and ingenuity in their buildings, and, doubtless, 

 they did the best they could. 



Beneath the stones of the hut-circles I found the sams 

 Lastrea dilatata growing that I had found elsewhere, with the 

 coal-black fnrctification. On the rocks were Lichens and 

 Mosses of many varied kinds ; amongst them, and by far th6 

 most lovely, were the Coral Sphserophoron, of which I found 

 three distinct kinds, coraUoides, fragile, andcompressum, each 

 wonderful in its minute loveliness. The whole of Dartmoor 

 abounds in Ferns, Mosses, Lichens, and the rarer shrubs. The 

 Lycopodiums clavatum and selago grow in abundance on 

 Hamildon. The wild Cherry (Prunus cerasus). Raspberry 

 (Rubus idasus), and Currant (Ribes rubrum), are to be met 

 with ; the Burnet Rose (Rosa spinosissima), and Downy-leaved 

 Rose (R. tomentosa), with a thousand other shrubs and plants, 

 tempting the torurist on from hill to hill, and valley to valley, 

 in endless and varied successions of interest and beauty. — 

 Fekn-hunteess. 



TODMORDEN BOTANICAL SOCIETY.— Nov. 6th. 



Among cryptogams, and especially among Filices. were many extra- 

 ordinaiy things, a variety of the Hart's-tongue, for instance, with fronds 

 of a creamy white, a thorouglily pennanent variety, moreover. Snrely 

 no other " sport" of this spoiiful species may be compared with it. 

 Scolopendi-ium vulgare hcmionitoides, also exhibited, has exactly the 

 appearance of the novel Asplenium palmatum (Hemionitis) cristatum ! 

 Scolopendriam vulgare lonchophonim ("spear-bearing !"' how could any 

 mild-dealing botanist ever think of approaching, much less handling, so 

 dangerous a plant !) has fronds 12 to 15 inches long, and only half an 

 inch broad, or less, throughout. It is a most curious sport, and, we were 

 informed, perfectly constant. Among other novel or rare British Fihces 

 were Ath\rium F.f. coraigenim (M) a new Lady Fera of merit, As- 

 plenium Adiantum-nigram microdon (M) true, and Lastrea dilatata 

 Howarfhi or Howardiana (Monkman), a magnificent variety of the 

 Broad Buckler Fern, bearing the same relation to the type that A. F.f. 

 Fieldiffl does to the ordinary type of Lady Fern, every pinnule on every 

 pinna being distinctly cross-sliaped ! Among exotic Fei-ns were ; No- 

 thochla:na Maranta (most beautiful when well grown, mth bright pea- 

 greeu-coloured fronds, furnished on the under side with richly-coloured 

 scales, but usually grown in too much heat, protection from frost being 

 alone required) a bifid form of Lomaria gibba, one of the finest of the 

 Lomarias, and the new and beautiful Adiantum Fcei (to be kept out of 

 tlie stove and in the gi-eenbouse). Mr. W. Hobson, of Philadelphia, 

 U.S.A., a correspondent of the Society, sent examples of Schizsea 

 pusilla, gathered in swamps near that city. This is one of the tiniest 

 and rarest of Fihces, certainly of North-American Fdices ; so tiny is 

 it that only the keenest and most practised eyes could detect it, wild;. 

 Mr. H. announced also his discovery, after a long and patient search, 

 of plants of Lygodium palmatum, beyond all question the most beanti- 

 ful of North American Ferns. Mr. Hobson wiU report further at subse- 

 quent meetings. One of the Society's New Zealand correspondents 

 sent the following, gathered chiefly in the neighbourhood of Auck- 

 land; Polvpodium grammitidis fSm.}, Hymenopbyllnm rarum(Sm.), 

 H. crispatam (Wall.), Trichomanes humile, Nothocblsna distans (?) 

 and PhyUoglossam Drnramondii (Lycopodiacene). Mr. Barnes, of Miln- 

 tboii^e, sent examples of two new and splendid fonna of Lastrea mon- 

 taua, the one marvellously caudate, the other singularly narrow and 



