vi.] ABOUT A FERN. 109 



spot fully a dozen species of ferns can be obtained, 

 many of them in the greatest profusion. Acres of the 

 Northern Hard-fern crowd each other close among 

 the heather, and from the hedge-banks and the forks 

 of trees hang great clusters of bright-green Poly- 

 podies. Here at an altitude of over eight hundred 

 feet you may in early spring find the Broad Buckler 

 with the last year's fronds still green and fresh upon 

 it. But then it is protected well from the cutting 

 winds by a fir wood fringed with hollies, yet still the 

 situation does seem too exposed to suit this species. 

 In cultivation it must be thoroughly protected both 

 from wind and sun, when its graceful broad arching 

 fronds will have a most beautiful effect. But expose 

 it to the wind, however little, and it will become one 

 of the most unsightly objects, and a libel upon the 

 character of ferns. It is thoroughly suitable for 

 indoor culture, in a room with a northern aspect 

 (which all ferns require). Here it will become, in 

 gracefulness, second only to the Lady-fern, and will 

 retain its fronds all through the winter. 



But it is in the counties of Devon and Cornwall 

 that we must seek the ferns if we would see them in 

 all their natural luxuriance and plentifulness. Every 

 hedge harbours continuous lines of Polypody, whilst 

 from the sides of the ditch below fresh-green Hart's- 

 tongues over a yard in length abound. Down the 

 deep narrow lanes, whose walls are built of flakes, 

 chipped from the rocks below, where the trees on 

 either bank, extending their arms to each other 

 across the top, form a cool arcade through which the 

 breezes come from the bay on which we look down 



