FERN HABITATS. 2^ 



enumerated, and it is just such spots as these that 

 should furnish the kinds of fern that have been named. 



Talking of Devonshire, we must give one or two 

 little pictures of its scenery in places certain to be 

 crowded with many kinds of ferns. 



Here (page 26) is a bit of the Plym, near Cadover 

 Bridge. The river is brawling along just as Devonshire 

 rivers like to brawl, softly and musically, though with 

 great meaning, which implies the power to thunder when 

 heavy rains upon the moors bring down the waters 

 with a sudden rush that bears no resistance. Amongst 

 the riverine boulders the fern-hunter will not look in 

 vain probably, even if he have to search a little way, for 

 Osmunda and Blechnum, Lady Fern and Male Fern 

 (Lastrea filix-mas). Three other Buckler Ferns he is not 

 unlikely to find, the Mountain, the Prickly-toothed, 

 and the Crested. The upland immediately beyond the 

 water will certainly give him Pteris aquilina, and not 

 impossibly careful search amongst the grassy roots 

 would lead to the discovery of the Moonwort, and a 

 little more towards the water, if he looks in somewhat 

 moister positions than he expects to find Botrychium 

 lunaria in, the Adders-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatuni). 



Looking out now for wood and water, we could 

 scarcely select a more typical bit of Devonshire fern 

 country than the scene in Bickleigh Vale, represented on 

 page 28. From these stony water-margins are sure to 

 look out, their roots snugly embedded in the leaf-mould 

 angles of their rocky habitats, grand specimens of Lady 

 Fern, Hartstongue, Hard Fern, and, a little higher on the 

 banks, the Hard and Soft Prickly Shield Ferns, the Com- 

 mon Polypody, the Broad Buckler Fern, and the Black 

 Maidenhair Spleemvort. In this same neighbourhood, 

 creeping along over moist stony surfaces, there should 

 be found masses of the two Filmy Ferns, Hymenophyllum 

 tunbridgense and Hymenophyllum unilaterale. 



The beautiful Filmy Ferns, though absent from many 



