2 ROUND THE YEAR 



imitative, and their retreats carefully chosen. Nor 

 will keen eyes suffice unless there is knowledge also. 

 " Man sieht nur was man weiss" says Goethe, and 

 the insect-hunter verifies the saying. The trained 

 naturalist goes about in the winter, and sees living 

 things everywhere. The eager, but uninstructed 

 naturalist can hardly find anything. 



Many years ago I got a practical lesson on this 

 subject. I was visiting at a country house in Craven, 

 and the lady of the house showed me her beautiful 

 fernery with some pride. " I am anxious to get the 

 Adder's tongue fern," she said, " but I have hunted 

 for it in vain." I knew that there were some likely 

 meadows at no great distance, and proposed a walk. 

 We went two or three miles, and by groping among 

 the mowing grass soon found ten or twenty plants. 

 The only difficulty was to distinguish the leaf of the 

 Adder's tongue from the rather similar leaves of 

 Hawkweed and Daisy. The plants were packed up, 

 and we walked back. In every field, now that our 

 eyes were opened, we saw the Adder's tongue, and 

 said with some amusement : " If we had only looked 

 as we walked along, we might have saved ourselves 

 the trouble of a long walk." At last we entered 

 the grounds again, and on the lawn, five yards from 

 the front door, there was as much Adder's tongue as 

 could be desired. 



Moonwort is another little fern, which is reputed 

 rare. In Yorkshire it grows abundantly on certain 

 stony pastures, often at a considerable height, and 

 would be considered no uncommon plant, if it were 

 only easy to distinguish. 



