CRYPTOGAMIA FILICES. 15 



ring, which at maturity suddenly bursts, tearing up the 

 membrane and scattering the seeds. These, in former 

 times, it was imagined, could be seen only on St John's 

 night, at the hour when the Baptist was born ; and who- 

 ever became possessed of them was thereby rendered in- 

 visible. u We have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk in- 

 visible." The gathering of such a convenient receipt was, 

 as might be presumed, not a little hazardous, and the chas- 

 tisement to which the adventurer exposed himself, is de- 

 scribed in the lines selected for a motto. 

 All our species of Aspidia are common, but so far as the ani- 

 mal part of creation is concerned, they are of little or no 

 value. Man applies them to no economical purpose ; no 

 cattle will brouse on them ; birds find them sterile of food; 

 nor do even insects seem to feed upon them. Yet their 

 great numbers and very general diffusion, are proofs that 

 they grow not in vain : perhaps to the earth and to the 

 atmosphere they principally minister, affording to the one, 

 by their decay, an annual addition of soil rich in alkaline 

 salts ; and effecting changes on the other conservative of 

 its purity. But in these purposes there is nothing special, 

 and I love best to look upon Ferns as ornamental herbs, 

 designed, perhaps chiefly, to vary the mantle with which 

 the Author of all has covered the surface of our globe : 



" For not to use alone did Providence 

 Abound, but large example gave to man 

 Of grace, and ornament, and splendour rich, 

 Suited abundantly to every taste, 

 In bird, beast, fish, winged and creeping thing, 

 In herb, and flower." 



They are, it is true, sombre in colour, and put forth no gaudy 

 flowers to captivate the vulgar ; but in elegance and har- 

 mony of form, and in picturesque effect, they excel most 

 native plants. Unless checked by injury or mechanical 

 restraints, all the Aspidia grow in circular tufts, the plume- 

 like fronds bending outwards with a graceful curve. 

 Even the most unobservant must have noticed this, and 

 the curious circinate manner in which the young shoot up, 

 for there is scarce a situation in which they do not prove 

 ornamental : but mostly so when they grow from the clefts 

 of rocky and woody precipices, or by the margins of the 

 little rivulets which take their murmuring course through 

 the deep deans of our retired heathy districts, or best of 

 all, when pendent over the sides of their linns or little cas- 

 cades. 



