3O WHERE TO FIND FERNS. 



and matted that they could be stripped from the rocks 

 in sheets, though no fern-gatherer should take more than 

 a modest share of what is intended for all. 



Stony bridges no longer new, when the mortar begins 

 to crumble, and leaf-mould to gather in the crevices from 

 which the mortar falls, form happy hunting-grounds for 

 fern-gatherers. Such a bridge as we have just repre- 

 sented as spanning the beautiful Plym, or one like that 

 we give below, at Uolgelly, is just the kind of structure 



for several kinds of ferns to grow on. On the top and 

 sides would be found the Common Polypody, small on 

 the open face of the structure, larger in places where 

 ivy-roots keep in the moisture and retain the leaf-mould. 

 Hartstongues, too, only the smaller specimens, but 

 larger or smaller according to just the same conditions 

 as those which influence the Polypodies, would be found 

 in similar positions. Tiny specimens might be found, 

 too, of the Hard and Soft Prickly Shield Ferns. But 



