EXCURSION TO MALHAM. 9 



silvery stems rising fi-om a dark green fringed leaf or frond. At the 

 summit of the stem is a calyptra, opening with four divisions, which con- 

 tain the spores or seeds. 



The next village is Ku-by Malham, with its fine old Norman Church and 

 hospitable Inn. The scenery here is truly beautiful, and, in some places, 

 wild and grand. At the entrance to the churchyard may still be seen a 

 specimen of the ancient Lichgate, which is a short covered passage where 

 the mourners of the dead waited witli the body the arrival of the minister. 

 This is the only remaining Lichgate in these parts excepting the one at 

 BurnsjiU. The impressive stillness in the churchyard was only broken by 

 the gentle passing of the breeze which waved the tall grass on the graves 

 of those who have slept for ages, and whose monuments have ceased to 

 tell of the departed and thus blotted out their memory for ever. This is 

 one of the ehurches which suffered mischief at the hands of Cromwell's 

 soldiers. A few miles distant is Calton Hall, the seat of General Lambert, 

 c elebrated in the stormy times of the civil wars. Here the Bladder fern 

 (Cystopteris fragilis) was noticed in great abundance This is one of our 

 prettiest native ferns, and is moderately distributed over the north of 

 Yorkshire. We were now very much interested in assisting our Ento- 

 mologist to excavate a fine specimen of Fungi Polyporus squamosus 

 which he rightly suspected as the habitation of some very pretty beetles. 

 By this time Malham Cove could clearly be seen, and our attention 

 was absorbed with the view until we reached Malham. Here are a 

 chapel, two Inns and a Temperance Hotel. At one of these Inns 

 I was much astonished to see a large basket full of choice plants 

 taken from the surrounding locality, with the intentit.n of being 

 conveyed away. Whoever the collector might be, I am sure he has 

 no just appreciation of our native wild plants, and the preserva- 

 tion of their habitats, or he would not gather them with such a ruthless 

 hand. If this practice become common it will deprive Malham of its 

 botanical celebrity. I can find no fault with those Botanists who wisely 

 conceal the precise locality of the Holly fern (Polysticlium Lonchitis) &c., 

 for, were it found out by one of these offenders, I believe the plants would 

 no longer remain to please the eyes of a favoured few. After a short rest 

 we turned out for the afternoon's ramble In passing up the stream, 

 which runs under the Cove, was found the Blue Jacob's Ladder 



