THE ROYAL FEEN 305 



the bog-lands and swamps throughout Europe, 

 away in India and Madagascar, Canada and Brazil, 

 Natal and Mexico, and elsewhere in Asia, Africa, 

 and America. It gives, we take it, an added 

 interest to a plant to realise how widely it is 

 distributed, that the flower that springs up unin- 

 vited in our garden is dotted as freely over Cape 

 Colony or Japan. There are not a few plants that 

 are practically cosmopolitan, either by nature or by 

 the voluntary or involuntary agency of man. 



The royal fern is ordinarily found near sea-level, 1 

 or at all events not more than some three hundred 

 feet above this. Under auspicious circumstances 

 it may attain to a height of some six or seven feet, 

 or, exceptionally, even more. It is easy of culture 

 if only we do not fail to remember that it must 

 have abundance of moisture. Our finest plant has 

 been flourishing with us for over thirty years, and 

 seems quite willing to go on indefinitely. It came 

 to us originally from Surrey, from the banks of the 

 Wey, then went to Wiltshire, and prospered by the 

 banks of the Kennett, undergoing two moves there 

 on changes of home, when another change brought 

 it back to Surrey, where it has since undergone yet 

 another shift. It has therefore been dug up four 



1 So far south as Cornwall right away to Arran it may 

 often be found amongst the rocky debris on the beach, on 

 the precipitous faces of the sea-cliffs, or luxuriating in caves 

 accessible to the tides. 



20 



