326 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 25, 1864 



Furnished with my book of " patterns," a black tourist's 

 bag, two trowels, one flat like a bricklayer's, to pick Ferns 

 out of rock or wall, I set off on a Scotch tour. I was pro- 

 vided with all the requisite means of collecting the Ferns ; 

 but how was I to cany them about for two or three months 

 in any quantities ? I hit upon the following plan which 

 answers so completely, that I think I may say I have hardly 

 lost one specimen since I adopted it, and I have brought 

 Ferns from the very heart of the Pyrenees. 



I provided myself with a large tin box with padlock and 

 Key, and three or four yards of common brown calico. . As 

 I found the Ferns I wrapped them up in bits of calico with 

 a little earth and drainage at the bottom, sewing them tight, 

 like little mummies, leaving only the fronds and stalks un- 

 covered. In this way the tin box held large quantities. At 

 the inns I simply unlocked the box, and once in every few 

 days sprinkled them with water. I have carried them in this 

 way for two or three months. They are not half the trouble 

 of a new bonnet, for they come out at the end of the journey 

 as fresh as when they started, which I grieve to say a bonnet 

 never does. 



Our first halting place was Edinburgh, and early morning 

 found me wending my way through old dingy streets, past 

 houses of a dozen stories high, to Arthur's seat, where in 

 some retired nook I was told I might find Asplenium sep- 

 tentrionale. Ever and anon, as I walked, I turned to gaze. 

 Below me lay the fair Palace of Holyrood with its ruined 

 graceful chapel and its thousand associations. There Rizzio 

 was murdered. There the beautiful but hapless Queen Mary 

 sinned and repented. There the Pretender slept — Pretender 

 indeed! Instinctively I hummed the old Jacobite toast, 

 ending — 



" But which Pretender is, and 'which the Kinsr, 

 "Why, bless us all, that's quite another thing !" 



Away to the left in the old town is the Tolbooth, and a 

 little further the Canongate, places that seem to come to you 

 as scenes of your childhood, so familiar have the wondrous 

 pages of Sir Walter Scott made them, and as one toils up 

 the steep ascent to Arthur's seat a crowd of old memories 

 rush in upon the mind, and the eyes become a little blind to 

 the direct object of the walk. "What wonder, then, if you 

 return, as I did, Fernless, but with an appetite as keen as a 

 hunters from the pure air sweeping to you over the white- 

 cappe 1 waters of the Frith of Forth ? 



My first personal acquaintance with Dryopteris (I must 

 be allowed to use their christian names !), in its wild state, 

 was made between Hawthornden and Roslin, in a lovely 

 walk raised a little above the flowing rippling Esk. In the 

 woods on either side it grows in great luxuriance, and many 

 a root found its way into the black bag. It gave rise to a 

 great argument, one of the party declared it to be Cal- 

 careum. In vain I said Calcareum had not as yet been found 

 in Scotland; in vain I pointed out the true characters of 

 Eryopteris, the pale green of the young fronds with their 

 three little rolled-up balls, the flat compact forms of the larger 

 fronds, descanting meanwhile on the blue green of Calcareum 

 with its larger more straggling fronds, its narrower pinna?, 

 its sharper serrated pinnules. It would not do, and, doubt- 

 less, to this day the same Fern bears two distinct names in 

 our respective ferneries. 



Dryopteris is a little difficult to pack from its creeping 

 roots ; but I was unmerciful, cramming a whole heap of deli- 

 cate little fronds and roots into one mummy case, and of all 

 my transplanted Ferns Dryopteris stands second in its free 

 growth and increasing habit ; but it should be planted as a 

 border to a fernery amongst the lowest stones, and never in 

 the upper stages as it soon overgrows any Fern near it. It 

 looks well in contrast with Asplenium trichomanes. I found 

 Dryopteris very plentiful all over Scotland; but in Fern- 

 hunting I make a rule always to take the first specimens I 

 find. It is easy to change them for finer plants afterwards, 

 but Ferns are usually very local, and an opportunity neg- 

 lected is oftentimes an opportunity gone for ever. 



My next acquaintance with Dryopteris took place at 

 Callander, where a tourist is first allowed the privilege of 

 saying he is in the highlands. Callander is a famous place 

 for a few days' halt, for there are good fish in the river, and 

 the country around abounds in wild flowers and Ferns. It 

 is a pleasant little village of scattered white houses, backed 

 by Fir-clothed rocks, while in the front and to the right are 



undulating hills leading up to the foot of Ben-ledi, or the 

 " Mountain of God," where shadows are always dwelling. 

 I was told I should find P. lonchitis on Ben-ledi, but I 

 searched there in vain. 



Within a walk of Callander are the Falls of Brachlinn, to 

 which we were guided by a shoeless intelligent child of the 

 mountains, carrying our basket of provisions, which we ate 

 on some scattered rocks within sight and sound of the merry 

 leaping waters, which fell at our feet with a rushing mighty 

 music. It was just the home for Hymenophyllum tun- 

 bridgense, and little Maggie and I jumped from boulder 

 to boulder in fruitless search ; but roving amongst the debris 

 of leaves and moss I found a whole carpet of Polypodium 

 phegopteris and dryopteris. 



I have noticed this peculiarity in Phegopteris — it chooses 

 shade for its roots, but the fronds make their way throngh 

 tangle and briar up to the light and sunshine ; and to do this 

 the wiry stalk is often half a yard in length, so that some- 

 times it is no easy matter to get at the roots, and I chose 

 rather the plants where the fronds were less fine and the 

 stipes shorter. These, usually, were near at hand on drier 

 soil. 



Phegopteris is not so happy-looking in cultivation as 

 Dryopteris, and it is even more troublesome to paek. I took 

 up a large surface of roots, sewed them in a flat package 

 and put them at the bottom of the box with the other Ferns 

 upon them. In this way the fronds were injured, but the 

 roots themselves were unharmed. About Callander I found 

 my first Cystopteris fragilis — that loveliest of all our English 

 Ferns — so easy of cultivation, so delicately varied in form, 

 and yet so tenacious of life that the smallest division of the 

 bulbous-looking roots will grow. I do not think sufficient 

 attention has yet been given to this Fern. 



I have in my collection many true and constant varieties, 

 for which I can find no name in books, one of these and the 

 most beautiful in its diminutive grace is hardly 3 inches in 

 length. The pinna? are nearly opposite each other, and are in 

 the lower pinnules thrice-pinnate, the whole of the divisions 

 are acute, and this separates it from C. alpina, as also from 

 dentata. I have other varieties equally distinct, and coming 

 up year after year true to their original form ; but I did not 

 find these at Callander, though all the old broken walls 

 abounded in the usual form of C. fragilis, and I brought 

 away dozens of plants in their compact mummy cases. 



My first Scotch "Sabbath" was passed within the shadow 

 of Ben-ledi. How different it was from an English Sunday, 

 and still more from an Italian jour de fete. A deep solemnity 

 seemed fallen on the world, the very mountains looked a 

 shade more green, and the wild flowers as if they blushed 

 at looking so pretty, and growing on this sober day. I 

 went to the " established church," from which the " Free 

 Kirk " has fallen away, just as the " Southerners" fall from 

 the "North," which in like manner fell from its allegiance to 

 England. The humble building was filled with a sober 

 severe-looking congregation. The minister and Kirk session 

 were in the vestry electing three " elders," of which notice 

 was given to the congregation, and if any had objections to 

 raise they were cited to appear and state them. Presently 

 the minister came and gave out a psalm, which we all sang 

 sitting down, then he made a little quiet prayer, all the con 

 gregation standing, then we sang again, after which there 

 was a sermon with nothing particular in it, then another 

 psalm, then the elders were addressed and vowed obedience 

 to the "' confession of faith." After this the congregation 

 were addressed relative to their duties to the elders. A very 

 onerous post these elders seemed to fill ! Yerily, if they did 

 their duty and interfered with their sinful brethren as they 

 were bidden to interfere, methinks the old-established 

 Church of Scotland would deal in anathemas as freely as 

 the Church of Eome. 



Sober and stern the congregation looked, fitting de- 

 scendants of the rude old Covenanters, who counted their 

 lives as nothing compared with the faith they loved. I 

 joined in the singing with a " good courage," remembering 

 how the forefathers of these people had bought their freedom 

 of worship with their blood ; yet it was refreshing to be 

 once more in the bright tree air with the birds singing 

 joyously overhead, and the glad sunshine glinting amidst 

 the trees and making the flowing river like a pathway of 

 silver adorn the happy fields. — FiLrx-FaaiiNA. 



