98 BRITISH FERNS. 



continually passing by. One of the boatmen employed by Sir 

 Walter Scott, on the occasion of his visit to Killarney, told me 

 that Sir Walter scarcely uttered a syllable in praise of the 

 scenery until he came to this spot ; and here he stopped the 

 rowers, and exclaimed, " This is worth coming to see ! " The 

 boatman evidently thought very meanly of Sir Walter's opinion, 

 whom he considered in duty bound to be in raptures with the 

 lakes and mountains. I do not wonder at the great man's taste : 

 to me it appeared the most wonderfully beautiful spot I had 

 ever beheld, and this beauty is mainly owing to the immense 

 size and number of these pendant fronds. 



The long list of localities will shew how widely this fern is 

 distributed over the kingdom : its " metropolis," to borrow an 

 expression from our most celebrated entomologist, appears to be 

 the west of Ireland, more particularly Cunnemara, where it not 

 unfrequently covers the smaller islands in the lakes with a dense 

 mass of its luxuriant fronds ; those in the centre being more 

 erect, those round the margin more pendulous. 



The roots are strong and fibrous : the rhizoma is tufted, and 

 very large, as might be anticipated from its capacity of annually 

 producing such a weight of foliage : the young fronds, varying 

 in number from six to twelve, make their appearance in May, 

 arrive at maturity in August, and are destroyed by the first 

 frosts of winter ; their growth is remarkably rapid and vigorous, 

 and until nearly full grown, they have a reddish colour, like the 

 shoots of many herbaceous plants. The fronds are fertile and 

 barren. 



The fertile frond is linear and pinnate : the pinnae are four or 

 five pairs in number, generally opposite, linear, and pinnate ; 

 the pinnulae are linear, generally alternate, stalked and rounded 

 at the apex, with the exception of the apical pinnula, which is 

 more acute. The apex of the frond is composed of a compact 

 cluster of spikes ; these spikes correspond to pinnulae, of which 

 only the midvein, and a slight marginal wing is present, and to 

 each of the lateral veins is attached a nearly spherical mass of 

 thecae : these spherical masses entirely supersede any leafy 

 portion in pinnae so converted ; frequent instances, however, 

 exhibit the base of a pinnula in a leafy or barren, while the 

 apex is in a fertile state. In an early stage of the frond these 

 spikes appear crowded and pressed together, as represented in 

 the preceding page, but they soon become more lax and 



