Ransier: Hunting the Hart's Tongue 



29 



Fig. 4. A good plant of holly fern. 



There were hundreds of holly ferns at this station, 

 surpassing the Christmas fern in depth of color, in ele- 

 gance of carriage, and but little inferior in size. At one 

 spot, however, where fully exposed to the light and in dry, 

 poor soil, the holly fern grew perfectly erect, of small size 

 and of a rusty color. 



Crossing to the east side of the stream and searching 

 without result, I retraced my steps, filled my collecting 

 case with specimens and started hotelward through the 

 l ithering dusk. (I have since learned that I missed the 

 main station for hart's tongues, which is much further 

 south along the east side.) 



The next day I followed the ledge from just east of 

 the city line toward the south, finding holly ferns prin- 

 cipally at the to]) of the cliffs; but it was a serious day's 

 work, forcing one's way through thickets, or over the 

 rocky places, and no station for hart- tongues could be 

 found. Birch trees were very much in evidence, fur- 



