298 FKNS SEARCHED FOR. 



CHAP. XVIII, 



marinum. ... I have examined every accessible sea- 

 cliff from Portskerra to John o' Groat's, and never yet 

 found a trace of it. A. marinum on the slaty rocks ! 

 How is that to be accounted for ? Certainly not owing 

 to the exposed nature of the coast, nor to the sea spray. 

 I have clambered down the north-western point of 

 Dunnet Head, where the northern storms waste their 

 fury on the cliffs, and the sea spray is lifted in vapoui 

 high over their loftiest pinnacles, and even there As- 

 plenium marinum loves to nestle among its crevices ? 

 The distribution must be a mystery." 



Peach sends Dick many plants for him to name. 

 He sent the Polygonum viviparum. " It is a rare 

 alpine plant," was the reply. " It is not a fern at all, 

 though it is nearly as rare as your treasured Dryas 

 odopetcda, in search of which I have spent many a 

 long day. Your orchis is Hdbenaria chlorantha; your 

 fern Cystopteris dentata: it is decidedly rare. Thanks 

 for allowing me to rob you of Scolopendrium (Hart's- 

 tongue). ... A plant I have gathered here," he 

 says, " I have dried and submitted to an English pro- 

 fessor (Babington). He has pronounced it to be one of 

 the very rarest in Britain. The plant is rare, but not 

 so rare as the professor kindly wished to make it. 



" Not content with the specimens of the fern which 

 I had got beside me, I set out (July 23) for a mountain 

 nine miles away, where I knew the plant grew ; and in 

 due time I got there, and saw, or thought I saw, many 

 different species. On one sloping brae grew Polypodium 

 Phegopteris, and I sat me down beside it. I remarked 



