- ON CORNISH CLIFFS. 213 



plants growing under such circumstances 

 have leaves minutely sub-divided, so as to 

 catch such stray gleams of sunlight and such 

 floating particles of carbonic acid as happen 

 to pass their way. Look into the next 

 tangled and overgrown hedge-row which you 

 happen to pass, and you will see that almost 

 all its leaves are of this character ; and when 

 they are otherwise the anomaly usually admits 

 of an easy explanation. Of course the shapes 

 of plants are mostly due to their normal and 

 usual circumstances, and are comparatively 

 little influenced by the accidental surround- 

 ings of individuals ; and so, when a fern of 

 such a sort happens to grow like this one on 

 the open, it still retains the form impressed 

 upon it by the life of its ancestors. Now, it 

 is the striking combination of symmetry and 

 variety in the fern, together with vivid green 

 colouring, which makes us admire it so much. 

 Not only is the frond as a whole symmetrical, 

 but each frondlet and each division of the 

 frondlet is separately symmetrical as well. 



