£be jferns of tbe Mooo. 191 



pretty closely to the earth, and the strong, masculine 

 Pteris aqiiilina, the common brake, rears itself in an 

 assertive sort of way above the rest of the ferns. 

 There is great abundance of Osmunda in this wood, 

 all three varieties being well represented in the collec- 

 tion. One soon learns to know the Osmunda clay- 

 toniana by its brown fertile leaves, interrupting the 

 pale green of its great fronds, and the Cinnamomea 

 by its seed-leaves growing within the centre of a 

 little circle of sterile fronds. 



Here, too, there is much of the royal fern, the 

 Osmunda regalis, whose title to the throne some fern 

 lovers would decidedly dispute. When I was mak- 

 ing my first essays in the lore of the ferns I had a 

 very curious experience with this one ; I was watch- 

 ing everywhere for the royal fern, which the books 

 said was very common ; and yet I was able to find 

 nothing which seemed to answer the description 

 given in any of my authorities. At the same time I 

 was immensely puzzled by a bush which I met every- 

 where, and which bore a fertile leaf that was extremely 

 fern-like. At last in my ignorance 1 sent a specimen 

 to a wise woman, who in turn sent it to a wiser 

 woman, who returned the word that the fern I did 

 not recognise was the fern 1 had failed to find, and 

 that my search for his majesty, the royal fern, would 

 have been shortened if I had more carefully studied 

 the unknown variety which had baffled my small 

 knowledge. They were one and the same. 



If one is proof against mosquitoes and fearless of 



