FehnuiT 21, 1865. ] JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



15» 



buds from, it having withstood the severe winter of 1860-61. 

 Many of your readers will be inclined to think there are two 

 varieties of this magnificent Rose. This I beg to contradict, 

 having supplied Mr. Curtis with buds as weU as plants. — 

 S. J. Patitt, Rose Cottage, Bathwick, Bath. 



HAEDT FEEITS: 



HOW I COLLECTED iXD CULTIVATED THEM.— No. 10. 



Mt next Fei-n-tour, after Cornwall, was to the Lakes. 



I seemed to have left in the south the monuments and 

 recollections of the past, to bask for a time in the roseate 

 hues shed back upon the world fi-om the great intellects that 

 had so lately gone down amidst the Westmoreland hills. 

 At the Carlisle station Wordsworth's little grandchild met 

 me with a basket of Grapes. I took them with me into the 

 land so sacred to his memory ; and not to his memory alone, 

 for the whole district seemed haimted by spirit shapes, 

 flinging at me choice bits of sparkling wit or caustic humour, 

 with here and there strange touches of tender melody. 

 Sometimes I seemed to hall Professor Wilson, sometimes 

 Coleridge ; while Southey and Wordsworth gave me more 

 friendly greeting, lingering with me by every lake and tarn, 

 speaking to me out of the rushing waterfall, setting their 

 own sweet rhymes to Nature's harmonies. 



Our fii-st halt was at Windermere, from which we made 

 many excnrsions amongst the hills. We found Hymeno- 

 phyllum WHsoni at Dungeon Gill Farce, to which we drove 

 by Longhrigg Fell, seeing a curious sort of haymaking going 

 on by the way, where men toot the place of pitchforks, and 

 cast the hay "abroad" with their hands. In some parts of 

 the Pyrenees I have seen the same custom prevail, and when 

 the hay was made it was gathered together in a large sheet, 

 tied up, and carried away on the heads of women to the rick. 

 It is rather a scramble to reach the HymenophyUum at 

 Dungeon GiU, but mine host at the little inn is expert in 

 giving help, and, moreover, he is a botanist, and found us 

 many rare wild flowers that would have escaped a less ex- 

 perienced eye. The inn is far removed from any other 

 habitation, and the master told me that he found botany 

 the greatest resource during the many anxious days he 

 passed, before the Lake season really set in, waiting for 

 visitors who would not come. How great the poor man's 

 anxieties were his keen watchful eye, his pale anxious face, 

 too fully denoted. He had been in service; this inn was to 

 be let ; he married a good girl whom he had long loved, and i 

 began life hopefully. The first year all went well, but by- 

 and-by another inn was built in a more convenient situation. 

 Visitors dropped off to the rival house, and the poor young 

 couple were in deep fear for the result. When I remember 

 Dungeon GiU in its drear loneliness amongst the hills, I 

 fancy I see the wistful eye looking up the long road for the 

 help that visitors alone could bring. I longed to make every 

 one I met drive over to the inn that stands waiting for the 

 "Good time coming,"' within hearing of the tumbling waters 

 where HymenophyUum Wilsoni can be found for the seeking, 

 to reward them for their pains. 



We drove back to Windermere by Grasmere, Eydal, and 

 Ambleside. As we got near the church at Grasmere the 

 driver looked over his shoulder at us and said, "Would we 

 wish to alight at the church ? ' Parties ' mostly liked to say 

 as they'd seen Wordsworth's grave." So we alighted, and 

 stood beside the plain stone slab, on which was engraved but 

 the two words " William Wordsworth :" yet what magical 

 words they were ! They seemed to open a long vista down 

 which troops of " parties " were slowly pacing to and fro 

 the poet's grave — "parties" fr-om every quarter of the 

 globe, princes and peasants, statesmen and poets, old men 

 and little children — all drawn to the one solemn spot where 

 Nature's poet lay so calmly sleeping amidst the scenes he 

 loved so well. What' was it in the quiet poet that moved 

 all hearts ? Was it the " touch of Nature " that " makes 

 the whole world kin" — the Nature natural, yet very human 

 too.' 



Ambleside was busy as we drove through. Children with 

 happy faces were running about with every sort of quaint 

 device, made in rushes and flowers, which they were to 

 pnt up in the church at evening service, in honour of the 

 ancient custom of Eush-bearing — a custom for which no 



reason is now given. May it not be the remains of the 

 custom, which prevails abroad, of strewing the churches 

 with sweet-scented leaves and flowers, when there is an 

 " Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament ?" 



I went to Grasmere church on the following morning, but 

 I thought the quaint devices wanted the children's faces to 

 set them off. It is a lovely drive from Windermere to Ulles- 

 water by Trout-beck and Kirkstone Pass. On this drive I 

 first saw the Allosorus crispus in perfection. Hitherto I 

 had only possessed Uttle roots I had bought for Is. 6d. each, 

 which I had cherished as great rai-ities ; but on this day I saw 

 it in immense quantities, and I was told it was used by the 

 poor people to heat their ovens with. What a surprise it was ! 

 I fii-st discovered a few plants in a wall ; I begged the driver 

 to stop whUel dug them out. He laughed and said, "Wait 

 awhile. Ma'am, you'U find better than that." A Uttle fur- 

 ther on there were some smaU tufts by the side of the walL 

 I stopped the driver again, and again he laughed and said, 

 "Wait." So I waited tiU we arrived at the inn at the top 

 of the pass, and there it was growing everywhere ; but there 

 is such a thing as being embarrassed with riches, and it 

 was difficult to decide which to take. I did what I advise 

 other Fern-lovers to do; I packed up a large hamperful, and 

 sent it off by rail, home. The hostess of the inn showed 

 me also some Asplenium viride, not in tiny plants as I had 

 always seen it, but in large beautiful masses. I bought a 

 large clump for 6d. I asked if I could find it for myself. 

 " Oh, dear no ! quite impossible." It only grew in the most 

 inaccessible places where no one less brave and active than 

 her spouse dare venture. I do not think I quite beUeved 

 this ; but the horses were rested, so we drove on to Pat- 

 terdale— beautiful Patterdale ! — surrounded on all sides by 

 hills, reflecting themselves in the clear waters lying at their 

 feet. 



I cannot write of Patterdale without a greeting to our 

 good friend "Jack," guide, herbalist, fernisi;, ujnbreUa and 

 watch mender, glazier, &c. I made acquaintance with 

 Jack at once, and asked of the Ferns. Could he take me 

 to find the Asplenium viride? "Impossible;" it only grew 

 in the most dangerous places ; but he had a store of plants, 

 found long ago, that he could show me. I was taken to 

 the spot, and saw about fifty plants, very faded and blue- 

 looking as if just transplanted. I asked Jack if this were 

 not the case. "'WeU, yes;" he had brought them from 

 his own to the inn garden. Jack offered me a part of his 

 spoil. No, I must find some for myself. Would I take him 

 with me ? Certainly, and give him an extra shilling if I 

 found plenty. So the next day we set off for the ascent of 

 Helvellyn by Grisdale Tarn. Half-way we ascended the 

 rocky path, down which little streams were trickling here 

 and there: presently thei-e was a cry of "Found!" and I 

 saw my first plant of Viride growing wild ; it was peeping 

 from imder a dripping boidder of rock, Uke a green lizard. 

 I could only find it in the places where the trickling stream 

 kept perpetual moisture, and yet where the sloping hUl 

 and pebble bed made perpetual drainage. I learned the 

 peculiar habit of Viride on this particular morning, and I 

 never allow any stagnant moistui'e to be near it ; if I do, 

 the fronds rot and drop off. The views from HelveUyn are 

 magnificent : they steal on the waiting eye, as you ascend 

 higher and higher, in new and varied forms of loveliness. 

 Lake after lake, Uke sUver purified, nestles amidst these 

 ever-changing, ever-lasting hUls, over which a mUUon Ughts 

 gleam and haste away. Ulleswater, Windermere, Esthwaite- 

 water, Coniston, Bassenthwaite, andThirlmere were visible; 

 the Ayrshire mountains, Solway Firth, the sea, and range 

 after range of mountains, the nearer ones seeming as" soft 

 emerald-coloured velvet, those far away dark blue and sober 

 grey. But the ascent of HelveUyn is not all pleasure ; it 

 abounds in treacherous bogs, in two of which one of our 

 horses floundered. 



The day after the ascent of HelveUyn I had a private hunt 

 for Viride in an opposite direction, and I was most successful, 

 finding quantities in the wake of the trickling watercourses 

 down the hUl, but not one root did I find in any other situa- 

 tion. I did not once find it mixed with Trichomanes, which 

 proved to me that these two Ferns require totally different 

 situations in cultivation. ' i " ' •■ -■ 



On the mountain side, where I found the Asplenium viride, 

 I discovered the very beautiful Cystopteris I have mentioned 



