The Ferns. 255 



leaves," evidently only a corruption of its name ; and its berries 

 are believed throughout the Forest to be stained with the blood 

 of the Danes. The rarer large-flowered {calycinum) grows, 

 though not, I am afraid, truly wild, in some of the thickets 

 round Sway. In all the ponds, the marsh (elodes) springs 

 up, whilst the creeping {liumifasnm) trails its blossoms 

 over the turf of the Forest lanes, and the small {pulclirum) 

 shows its orange-tipped flowers amongst the brambles and 

 bushes. 



Take, again, the large family of the ferns, of which seventeen 

 species are distributed throughout the Forest. First and fore- 

 most, of course, stands the royal fern {Osmunda regalis), which 

 may be found from the sea-board to Fordingbridge, rearing its 

 stem in some places six feet high, and covering in patches on 

 the southern border, as at Beckley, nearly a quarter of an acre. 

 It grows in Chewton Glen, in all the lanes in the neighbourhood, 

 on Ashley Common, close to the Osmanby Ford River, and rears 

 its golden-brown pannicles in the boggy thickets near Rufus's 

 Stone. But before it, in beauty, stands the lady-fern, with its 

 delicate fronds and its tender green, growing in the open spaces 

 of the beech woods, as at Stonehard and Puckpits, and bending 

 over the Forest streams in large leafy clumps. Then, too, in 

 all the large woods grows the sweet-scented mountain fern 

 (Lastrea Oreopteris) ; and on every bank the hart's-tongue spreads 

 its broad ribbon-like leaves, and the fertile fronds of the hard- 

 fern spring up feathery and light, whilst from the old oaks 

 the common polypody droops with its dark green tresses. The 

 common maiden-hair {Asplenium Trichomanes) , too, hangs on 

 the walls and Forest banks ; and on Alice Lisle's tomb, at 

 Ellingham, the rue-leaved spleenwort is green throughout the 

 whole year. On Breamore churchyard wall and Ringwood 



255 



