MARSH FERN. 27 



found amongst sundews, heather, and asphodels : its 

 distribution is very general. Where the soil is light 

 and moist, so that the rhizome may extend itself with 

 freedom, it is most abundant. It has disappeared 

 from many districts where it once grew, on the intro- 

 duction of drainage ; this peculiarity will suggest the 

 necessity for preventing the escape of moisture from 

 its roots in cultivation. In this country its distri- 

 bution may be considered somewhat local, but it is to 

 be found in most English counties, though rarely in 

 Ireland and Scotland. In Wales it is not unfrequent, 

 and near London it grows on Wimbledon Common 

 and in Epping Forest. A botanical collector and 

 enthusiast, writing from a spot in Warwickshire, 

 where this fern formerly abounded, regrets its absence, 

 and attributes it rather to the rapacity of other col- 

 lectors than to the introduction of drainage and cul- 

 tivation. It should be borne in mind in gathering 

 specimens for the herbarium, or in taking roots for cul- 

 tivation under other circumstances, that in no place 

 will the plant thrive so well as in its native soil, and 

 that to remove the whole of a rare plant is perhaps to 

 exterminate it for ever. Notwithstanding the diffi- 

 culties we may expect to find in growing this fern 

 artificially, Mr. Sowerby assures us that he has grown 

 specimens for many years in common garden loam, the 

 roots covered with black peat to prevent evaporation, 

 and having no more than the usual watering given to 

 its neighbours. 



