PERNS. 35 



cealed in the great fern-bed. " I love to look upon that bed 

 of ferns," he said, " and to think of Him who gave them to 

 us, as a hiding-place, when there was no other within reach : 

 even as he concealed his servant of old from the face of 

 the cruel king who sought his life. When I am gone, 

 children, and your parents too are called hence, never 

 forget, in looking at the Osmund royal, the goodness of 

 your Heavenly Pather, without whose watchful care your 

 mother and yourselves might have been the slaves of some 

 fierce sea-king. Methinks that whoever cuts the root ob- 

 liquely may see my heart depicted within that blessed fern." 

 The green spleenwort told of a restricted locality. Very 

 limited is my range, she said ; confined in England to her 

 northern counties; in Ireland to one solitary mountain, 

 Ben Balben ; while my brother, the common spleenwort, is 

 found in almost every locality, from rocks and ruins to 

 mossy banks and hedge-rows. I bring to mind that won- 

 derful arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, which assigns 

 to every plant its place of growth. Men, in looking at me, 



