A PARADISE OF FERNS. 27 



yet leathery texture of the fronds of the Harts- 

 tongue, with their deep and shining green colour, 

 make them look exquisitely cool and refreshing, 

 rising up out of the dark hedge-bank as they do in 

 thick and clustering tufts sometimes almost erect, 

 at other times gracefully bending backwards their 

 shining leathery tips. Underneath the curling 

 tongue-shaped fronds, lie the curious rows of seeds 

 (spores), whose rich reddish-brown colour beauti- 

 fully contrasts with the deep shining green of the 

 frond. 



The Hartstongue is a bold free plant. You will 

 find it growing almost everywhere in Devonshire : 

 on the tops and at the sides of walls ; hanging from 

 old ruins ; growing out from the sides of cliffs and 

 deserted quarries; dropping down its long green 

 fronds into the cool and limpid water of road-side 

 wells hewn out of the rock : often exposed to the full 

 blaze of the sun, but always in such cases dwindled 

 down to a tiny size. The Hartstongue is to be 

 found in almost every conceivable form, from a tiny 

 thing of half an inch in length, when growing on a 

 bare dry wall, to a plant which is one rich thick 



