342 FERNS. 



stalk and mid-rib, the stalks, indeed, resembling some 

 hairy caterpillars. The leaves of this most remarkable 

 Fern shoot up from a thick, scaly, matted root, which 

 lines the interior of the rocky crevices. 



As we approach the summit of the mountain range, 

 where the air has a perceptible coolness, even under 

 the beams of the vertical sun, we observe the Ferns 

 assume a more and more prominent place in the cha- 

 racteristic vegetation. We cannot attempt to notice 

 in detail a tithe of the species ; look where we will, 

 almost, we see some kind or other. The narrow bridle- 

 paths are fringed with Ferns : out of the mossy edges 

 that are saturated with moisture like a sponge, the 

 luxuriant fronds spring in multiform beauty, and 

 curve over and hide the footway for yards and yards 

 together ; while minuter forms revel beneath their 

 protecting shades. Here is the Campyloneurum pliyl- 

 Utidis, long and lance-like, sprinkled with yellow dots, 

 and the Goniopteris crenata, with its prettily vandyked 

 margins, and the curious one-sided Campteria biaurita, 

 with each of its lowest pairs of large and boldly-notched 

 pinnae furnished with two strong pinnules on one side, 

 and nothing to correspond to them on the other. 

 Here is the Lastrea pubescens, broadly triangular ; 

 and the Polysticlmm mucronatum, so narrowly pin- 

 nate as to be strap-shaped in outline, with curved 

 rhomboidal leaflets, bristling with fine points, some- 

 thing like our Scottish Holly-fern. 



The rough stones by the path-side, and the great 

 roots of the hoary trees, which project their contorted 



