CHAP, xviii. THE HART'S-TONGUE FERN. 301 



A little later lie again complains of illness. He 

 says, " I can't bear mental fatigue. I am weary and 

 sore. The buzzing of a fly is a burden to me. I slept 

 only three hours last night. My head is sore, and I 

 am not 'i' the vein.' You compliment your humble 

 servant, and ask assistance to your list of queries. I 

 know a little just a little, and am daily making the 

 little more the mark of a true Scot ; yet in the im- 

 perfect knowledge of the Caithness strata I would not, 

 for crowns, or robes, or kingly globes, put my unhallowed 

 hands to a fancy section of Caithness strata." * 



At length Peach sent him the Scolopendrium. His 

 sickness had fled, and he was quite jubilant in his reply. 

 " I have planted it," he said, " among the magnificent 

 crags of Dunnet Head. A bronze pillar should reward 

 the person who introduces into a county such a lovely 

 plant as the Hart's-tongue fern, ever verdant, ever gay. 

 What beautiful green fronds ! How handsome and 

 picturesque ! My only regret is that I cannot sow it 

 broadcast over the whole land." 



A little later Peach sent him another lot of the 

 Hart's-tongue ferns from Sutherland. Dick proceeded 

 to plant them far astray, so that they might not be 

 huddled together into one corner, " I prefer," he said, 



* Sir Eoderick Murchison had requested Mr. Peach to furnish him 

 with & section of the rocks between Morven and the Orkneys. 

 " What ?" said Dick, " a section of Caithness strata without previous 

 examination ? It would he a mere fancy section of the whole county's 

 hard crust, to the delusion of all and sundry." He adds, that he 

 Dejected Hugh Miller's " section of Caithness strata, as based on defect- 

 ive data and misleading calculations." 

 14* 



