374 



MY GARDEN. 



have it now growing well in the Fern cave. I have seen it along the 

 Mediterranean coast beyond Mentone, but only in particular situations, 

 such as on a bed of sandstone, which is permeable by water : in this 

 situation the fronds were severely frosted in winter. I saw a plant 

 growing at the top of the Cathedral at Genoa, at a time when all the 

 fountains in the city were frozen. I noticed it, again, to be plentiful 

 at Pompeii and at Herculaneum, and also in the ruins of Nero's palace 

 at Rome. But nowhere was the maidenhair seen in such perfection as 

 in the ruined amphitheatre at Posilippo, near Naples. The underground 

 rooms and passages formerly used by the gladiators, and for the working 

 machinery of the amphitheatre (which is the most perfect of any now 



FK;. 862. Adiaiuum Capillus-Veneris. 



FIG. 863. Hymenophylhun Tunbridgense. 



existing), form a series of caves, through the walls of which moisture 

 continually oozes, and here the maidenhair luxuriates in all its glory. 

 Some of the fronds were eighteen or more inches in length, and the 

 earthen walls were covered with sheets of this lovely fern, standing out 

 at right angles from the wall or hanging down from the roof. I must 

 confess that, when I beheld this great and glorious sight. I was more 

 impressed with it than with the thought that I was present on a spot 

 where dramas of blood were enacted centuries before. I speedily 

 collected a number of plants, to the no small disgust of \.\\z cicerone, 

 who could not do the amphitheatre at his usual gallop, and who 

 shrugged his shoulders at my utter want of taste in gathering useless 

 weeds. Some of these plants now grow at my garden in the Fern 

 cave. The adiantum is said to luxuriate in the orange groves in 

 Spain, in which country the fronds are used to make the syrup of 



