436 THE FERNS OF BARMOUTH. [February, 



THE FERNS OF BAEMOUTH. 

 By the Rev. W. Walsham How. 



To the Feru-student there are very few places equal to Bar- 

 mouth. The whole neighbourhood is one spleuded Fern-garden. 

 Even the most unscientific lover of nature must be delighted with 

 the amazing profusion and variety of the Ferns which clothe al- 

 most every wall and rock around. The Barmouth Ferns are indeed 

 so enchanting that a short paper upon them cannot fail to be in- 

 terest! ug to the readers of the ' Phytologist.^ Let us give right- 

 ful precedence to the distinctively Barmouth Fern, the rare As- 

 plenium lanceolatum (Lance-leaved Spleenwort), here happily too 

 abundant, and too difficult to extract, to be much injured by the 

 highway-robbery of rapacious botanists. This Fern grows in 

 large tufts on the south side of the wall, between the road and 

 the estuary on the Aberamfra' Hill. It is also profusely abundant 

 about a mile from Barmouth, on the Dolgelley Road, growing 

 deepset among the loose stones of the wall, on the north side of the 

 road ; on the Harlech side of Barmouth it grows, but in no great 

 quantity, on the steep face of rock, by the roadside, half a mile 

 from the town. A few plants may be found in the walls by the 

 roadside, but it is met with in far greater abundance on some low 

 wall close above the shore, below Llanaber church, where it is 

 more easy to procure roots than in most other places. It is fre- 

 quently mixed with, or close to, its nearest of kin, Asplenium 

 Adiantum-nigrum (Black Spleenwort), which to an unpractised 

 eye somewhat resembles it. The rarer Fern is, however, in this 

 neighbourhood, easily recognized from its remarkable convexity, 

 a character not always belonging to it in other places. It is of 

 a darkish green, bent down and curled under (except in young 

 fronds) on each side of the main stem, and seems peculiarly at- 

 tractive to dust and spiders' webs. Next to this we will name 

 the universal favourite, Osmunda regalis, not an uncommon Fern 

 in this district. It is very plentiful and fine on the banks of the 

 Glandwr stream, and occurs near several of the other small 

 streams, as well as in the boggy flats between Barmouth and 

 Dolgelley, and between the Harlech road and the sea. The 

 Beech Fern [Polypodium Phegopteris) is to be met with in many 

 places, as in the lanes above Borthweu, by the Glandwr stream 



