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Development of the Organ of Destructiveness in some Plant-seekers, 

 not Botanists. By William Bennett, Esq. 



Never having visited the patronymic habitat of Hynienophyllum 

 Tunbridgense, and being desirous of inquiring after its welfare, and 

 of ascertaining whether it continued to maintain itself in that locality, 

 we started for Tunbridge Wells one day last week. On gaining the 

 High Rocks, we made at once for the first attractive opening we per- 

 ceived in them, and after exploring their bases for some time, ascended 

 through one of the characteristic fissures with which that peculiar 

 formation abounds. It was steep and narrow, and but for the ad- 

 vantage of being of somewhat spare habit, our progress towards the 

 top might have been arrested, or the foremost might have found him- 

 self in the predicament of a cork in the mouth of a bottle, difficult 

 to be extricated either way. At the upper part of the fissure, an arch- 

 way or small tunnel is formed by the rocks, through which it was 

 necessary to crawl, or to clamber up an awkward opening on the right, 

 in order to emerge on the summit. I have given this particular de- 

 scription, that every one who has either visited, or may hereafter 

 visit, the spot, may recognize it. By scrambling through the tunnel, 

 instead of climbing up the opening above mentioned, I missed the 

 first discovery of the object of our search. My son, who was my 

 companion, and a head taller, espied something green and suspicious 

 in a hollow of the rock above him, which, on gaining access to, proved 

 to be the Hymenophyllum. 



We thought ourselves exceedingly fortunate in thus, without any 

 guide or instruction, so soon lighting upon our quarry ; and we sat 

 down on a mossy, projecting rock, to gaze upon the home of the beau- 

 tiful little fern, and to spread out our bread and raisins, before laying 

 our profane hands on a single delicate frond. This, I believe, we 

 should not have done at all; but upon looking round at leisure, we 

 were delighted to observe several other patches, scattered among the 

 crevices, and one on the ground itself On descending into a lateral 

 fissure, to extend our investigations, I lighted on a loose, dark mass, 

 on a ledge, which, upon examining, to my grief and astonishment, I 

 found to be a large, dead mass of the Hymenophyllum, thus ruthlessly 

 torn oflF the rocks, and left to perish. Another, and another, turned 

 up ; and getting down right into the bottom of the great fissure, I 

 found it completely carpeted with the matted rhizoma and withered 

 fronds of the fern, in pieces, some certainly a yard square, thus wan- 

 VOL. IV. 3 D 



