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borough in Yorkshire. On the shores of Ireland and in the 

 Channel Islands it is most abundant. Few of our native ferns 

 vary more in size and general aspect than this ; in exposed situa- 

 tions the fronds being often not above an inch in length, while in 

 warm and sheltered ones they are not unfrequently one or two feet 

 or even more. The rhizoma is short, firmly fixed by long and very 

 slender wiry radicles that penetrate deeply into the crevices of the 

 rocks, which renders transplantation difficult and precarious; it 

 forms new crowns or branches that divide very slowly, so that in 

 plants of large size the fronds compose a dense tuft. The rachis 

 is bare for about one-third of its length, glossy, and of a dark 

 purplish- brown colour, passing into black at the base. The pinnae 

 are nearly equal in length throughout, except towards the apex, 

 giving the frond generally a linear but slightly acuminated out- 

 line ; they are of a deep green above, pale beneath, in maturity 

 of a firm, almost leathery texture, and so placed as to point more 

 or less obliquely forward ; in form and distance on the rachis they 

 vary according to size and exposure, the general figure being an 

 oblong-oval, with an unequal base, more or less auricled on the 

 upper side and truncated below ; the margin is serrated, and occa- 

 sionally so deeply as to become lobed. The lateral veins are alter- 

 nate and forked, bearing the linear sori on the upper division. 



Although so common and so widely distributed along our sea- 

 shores, this is a troublesome fern in cultivation ; it will not bear 

 exposure at all in the vicinity of London, I have tried it several 

 times on rock-work, and under various treatment as to soil and 

 elevation, but have never succeeded in keeping it through the 

 winter. In many of its native habitats it occupies caverns and 

 narrow crevices, of such depth that the light must be almost totally 

 excluded; in these it attains the greatest luxuriance; and in an 

 imitation cleft, a small Devonshire specimen, planted this spring, 

 bids fair to rival its wild associates, and, judging from present 

 appearance and progress, to find itself quite at home. Independent 

 of the effect of cold upon plants, we do not pay sufficient attention 

 in cultivation to the circumstances attending their natural growth. 

 I have previously referred to the necessity of observation in this 

 respect, and believe the want of such observation to be a main 

 obstacle to that success, the failure of which is so often deplored 

 by the fern amateur. Now, in regard to the species before us, it 

 will be found, almost universally, growing sheltered from the wind, 

 and so disposed as to avoid the lodgement of rain upon the fronds ; 

 the latter is a point most essential to the health of an evergreen 

 fern, and if attended to, would, as I know from experience, ensure 

 that duration which is in many instances so equivocal. In pot- 

 cultivation, A. marinum requires the same care of ensuring perfect 

 drainage that is necessary to rock-plants generally. The soil may 



