CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CORNISH FLORA. 133 



'' Owing to an accident I did not see Nature for the 23rd of 

 February till yesterday. In a note which appears in it, on the 

 Report of the Cheltenham College Natural History Society, a 

 doubt is expressed as to the accuracy of the statement that the 

 fern, Tricliomanes radicans^h3i& been found in Cornwall. Knowing 

 that it has not yet been recorded for that county, I have, for 

 some years past, intended to take an early opportunity to make 

 the following facts public ; time has, however, slipped away, and 

 I have never yet done it. 



"In August of the year 1867, at St. Knighton's Kieve, a 

 romantic ravine and waterfall on the northern coast of Cornwall, 

 about two miles from Tintagel Castle, I obtained an undoubted 

 specimen of this fern. It grew on a rock overhanging the water, 

 about a quarter of a mile below the fall. It was an exceedingly 

 small patch, and I accordingly contented myself with a small 

 root bearing two fronds. Wishing to grow this specimen instead 

 of drying it, and having unfortunately placed it in a hot-house, 

 the plant died. I have, however, preserved it, and when I return 

 to London, where my herbarium is, I shall be glad to produce it 

 for the satisfaction of any sceptics. In the following year (1868) 

 I paid an exceedingly hurried visit to the same spot, but failed 

 to find the fern ; never having been in the neighbourhood since, 

 I have been unable to confirm or to dispel my fear that the plant 

 has been discovered by some ruthless collector. I may add that 

 I have long since mentioned this fact to various friends interested 

 in botany." 



Commenting on this record, Keys, in Part V of his Flora of 

 Devon and Cornwall, appearing in the "Transactions" of the 

 Plymouth Institution and Cornwall Natural History Society, 

 1871, adds:— Mr. Eobert Were Pox, P.E.S., of Penjerrick, saw 

 it growing in the place mentioned in 1866 or 1867. It was 

 shown to him by the owner of the place, who, it would appear, 

 first found it there ; and Mr. Fox advised him to protect it 

 carefully from being all taken away by visitors. Previously to 

 this date the existence of the fern in that locality was unknown." 



From which no unprejudiced person can doubt that the 

 Killarney Fern has really patronized Cornish soil. 



