THE DK1STLJ5 JPERN. 



Nursed in the atmosphere of the waterfall, in that 

 atmosphere must it live and develope. 



Rare indeed amongst British Ferns is Tricho- 

 manes radicans. Not England or Wales or 

 Scotland can produce it. But it seems to have 

 made a home for itself in the south of Ireland. 

 There, in many localities, by river-falls, on drip- 

 ping rocks on the lake borders, in ravines and 

 glens, it is to be found : but only where un- 

 ceasing dampness, caused by dripping water, 

 exists. On the wet surface of the rock or wall 

 which it has chosen for its habitat it spreads its- 

 thread-like, matted roots like a film. Sometimes 

 it grows amongst the moss and earth which may 

 have collected on the rocks. It has a creeping 

 rhizoma, from which grow its fibrous roots that 

 cling to the damp rocks or expand in the moist 

 crevices between them. The rhizoma is encom- 

 passed with hairs or bristle-like scales. The 

 stem of the frond is usually, but not always, about 

 the same length as its leafy part, the shape of 

 which, from the point where the rachis com- 

 mences, is triangular. To the right and to the 

 left of the rachis, and extending to the apex of the 



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