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JOTJENAL OF HOETICTJLTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



November 22, 1864. 



awa?" said an old road-scraper to me; "ye'll be seeking 

 for something, nae dout." I explained I was going to Sten- 

 ton for Ferns. " Weel, weel, ye'll find them unco high, too 

 high for a leddy, maybe." 



The old road-mender was right. I returned hours after, 

 wet through with what in pleasant mockery is called Scotch 

 mist, but Fernless. "Ye'll hae been disappointed," said 

 my old friend when he caught sight of me. " Te come to 

 me the morn and I'll see. I live at Stenton, ye'll hae seen 

 my hous for bye the rock." 



The next day I kept my appointment ; and my friend, 

 true to his word — for he was a very Scot — had two large 

 clamps of Septentrionale for me. " Oh, leddy," he said, 

 " the gran gardeners hereaboots hae taen all the ither sort, 

 and I could nae find ye one root." 



When I offered the old man a shilling he answered, "Nae, 

 nae, keep your siller, I am glad to hae pleased ye." 



And I was pleased, for never have I seen in England such 

 plants of Septentrionale as these. They were no unhealthy- 

 looking scraps picked off the face of the rock, but compact 

 tufts (one of them mixed with A. trichomanes), of 3 or 4 

 inches in size. Much has been written about the difficulty 

 of managing Septentrionale, but I have hitherto found none. 

 I planted these specimens (considerably reduced by gifts to 

 friends), in an open fernery facing the south, and they came 

 up year after year luxuriantly and well, but they do not 

 increase. 



Asplenium gennanicum is said to grow on the Stenton 

 Eock, as well as the septentrionale : I was shown a plant 

 of it ; the tiny forked fronds were about 1\ inch in size, and 

 not so broad as Septentrionale, the forked ends being almost 

 as fine as a thread. I have never possessed this Fern, nor 

 have I ever seen a healthy specimen of it, or one I should 

 know as perfectly distinct from Septentrionale; indeed, I 

 believe the plants shown to me as germanicum have only 

 been diminutive specimens of Septentrionale. 



From the Stenton Eock in the cold north my mind wan- 

 ders to the sunny south, where, under conditions somewhat 

 similar, and yet how widely different, I have seen at Bag- 

 neres de Luchon in the Hautes Pyrenees, the entire face of 

 a rock, in the very eye of the sun, entirely covered with 

 Septentrionale : the fronds were nearly double the size of 

 our English Fern, and the forked ends one mass of rich 

 brown spores. 



I seldom look at Septentrionale without being, in thought, 

 carried away to beautiful Luchon. I seem once more to be 

 by the side of the Fern-covered rock. It stands jutting out 

 on the road leading into Spain, down which gaily-dressed 

 muleteers are driving their mules, laden with wood for the 

 winter's use ; the merry bells are tinkling in the air as the 

 poor mules shake their heads under the heavy burden. On 

 my left hand are jagged rocks, whose crevices are gay with 

 wild flowers ; on the right are Beech-covered hills, with 

 pretty chalets dotted about here and there, slanting down 

 to the town, with the river, lined with golden Poplars, flow- 

 ing through. Before me, in the far distance, is the Port de 

 Venasque, its snow-capped peaks glitter like diamonds in 

 the sun, and seem to sparkle with delight at the glorious 

 scene stretched out beneath them in the fair land of Spain. 

 I inhabited one of those chalets on the Beech-covered hill. 

 The garden is a very wilderness of flowers, and in this wil- 

 derness there is a little oratory with a statue of the Blessed 

 Virgin, whose shrine is always decked with flowers, and the 

 hand that places them there is the rough toil-stained one of 

 the old housekeeper, Jeanne. 



"My mistress used to put them there," she said; "but 

 she died when the little miss was born, and now there is 

 only me." 



Good old Jeanne ! with her hard features and tender heart ! 

 whose only outward religious observances seemed to consist 

 in placing the flowers and in sundry crossings of herself. 

 How much I used to enjoy our shoppings and marketings 

 together in the early morning ; Jeanne's head eoquettishly 

 adorned with a brilliant amber kerchief, tied in a dainty 

 knot on one side, and she herself trying, with unexampled 

 patience, to make me a proficient in (her) French, which 

 consisted of a most bewildering patois of Spanish and French 

 mixed together in one confused mass. 



I have never found Septentrionale growing in the shade, 

 nor do I believe it could endure such a situation ; it luxuriates 



in warmth and sunshine, and does not care for much water. 

 Tne one great point in cultivating it is thorough drainage ; if 

 there is any moisture hanging about, the base of the fronds 

 will decay, and gradually fall off, and a tiny wireworm will 

 come to help in the work of destruction. When the least 

 decay is visible in the fronds, dig up the plant, and look to 

 the drainage. 



At Dunkeld I found quantities of very fine Euta muraria 

 growing in the old wall of the Duke of Atholl's park. I 

 managed to pick out a great many roots with considerable 

 portions of earth attached ; but, alas ! I have never made 

 Euta muraria live for more than two years in cultivation. 

 I have tried it with old mortar, planting it upside and down- 

 side and every way, but all to no purpose ; I am new trying 

 it in a flower-pot nearly filled with drainage, placing the 

 flower-pot sideways in the fernery, and covering it with 

 earth. 



The Duke of Atholl's grounds are strictly preserved, and 

 I have a strong aversion to going over houses and grounds 

 with a bought permission, so one day I determined to enter 

 them as a freebooter. I was stopped by a little fellow. 



"Ye'll nae be ganging there," he said; "it's the Duke's 

 private walk." 



" But supposing I'm the Duchess," said I. 



" Weel, if ye're the Duchess ye maun go," said the boy ; 

 and then, amazed at his own temerity, he ran off, leaving 

 me to retrace my steps. 



On the road between Dunkeld and Aberfeldie I found a 

 very beautiful variety of Athyrium Filix-foemina, some of the 

 fronds were nearly 2 feet in length, the stipes of the younger 

 fronds were of a pinkish brown, and very bare, the pinna? were 

 thrice-pinnate, and the whole Fern had a graceful feathery 

 look. I have since seen what I believe to be the same Fern 

 under the name of Filix-fcemina plumosum. I found it not 

 far from the pretty waterfall called the Eumbling Bridge, 

 where troops of merry children meet you with baskets and 

 pinafores full of rich dark red Bilberries, and the far-off 

 distance has at eventide the sunny glow of the south falling 

 on ruddy banks of Heather. 



I found Lastrea spinulosa in many places in Scotland ; it 

 must be hunted for in shady nooks, where it grows side by 

 side with A. Filix-fcemina and Blechnum spicant. Mr. Bree 

 gave me a very curious specimen of L. spinulosa which he 

 found growing on the Coleshill bog ; the stunted frond was 

 little more than a foot in size; in colour it was a sickly- 

 looking greenish yellow. Mr. Bree also gave me a frond of 

 the very same root when cultivated, and it would have 

 puzzled any one but a close observer to have known they 

 were the same Fern ; and it is this altered aspect of Ferns 

 under altered conditions that makes their study bewildering 

 to a beginner. I dare not venture to say that L. spinulosa 

 under any conditions would turn intoL. dilatata, but it looks 

 uncommonly like it; and you find varieties so nearly ap- 

 proaching both Ferns that it is difficult to name them. This 

 difficulty does not exist with Lastrea uliginosa, the under 

 pinnules of uliginosa being the same size as the upper ones. 

 Uliginosa seems to approach nearer to L. rigida than any 

 other Fern, and yet on placing the two side by side it would 

 be impossible to mistake one for the other, the entire growth 

 of uliginosa being taller and much more robust, while the 

 pinna? are much farther apart. 



Lastrea rigida I have never found, so I have been reduced 

 to the necessity of buying one ; and of all my Ferns I have 

 found rigida the most tormenting to deal with, its likes and 

 dislikes are as many and as unaccountable as those of a way- 

 ward child. When I bought the plant of an amateur dealer 

 for 3s. 6d., it consisted of a nest of brown fronds, with one 

 withered frond about half a foot long, and two little deformed 

 fronds by its side. It was very unpromising, and my friend 

 the dealer assured me it was an illnatured subject chat re- 

 paid all your care by giving you nothing but those black 

 looks. I did all I could for the " ne'er do weel." I made it 

 a lovely home with well-drained fine leaf mould for its food ; 

 but a year passed, and its new fronds were dwarfed, dark, 

 and illnatured-looking ; moreover they were evidently rot- 

 ting away. I looked for the reason, and found a large Fern, 

 planted above rigida, dropping some of its surplus wet upon 

 it. I moved it to a clearer place, and at last I gave satis- 

 faction. I housed it in winter, and planted it in a clear sunny 

 spot in summer, protecting the young fronds as I do those 



