December 20, 1861. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



487 



a knife ?" Thus armed "miss" was invincible ; and under 

 the smiling protection of the old women she scooped out 

 brick and stone, and a basketful of healthy plants, shortly 

 to be put on the lower tier of the "Warwickshire fernery. 

 At La Spezzia in Italy I found a diminutive form of Cete- 

 rach, which might be called pinnate. It was growing on 

 a rock within a few yards of the tideless sea, facing the 

 glorious bay, where a whole fleet could ride at anchor. 

 Nothing could exceed the grandeur of that Spezzia bay on 

 a clear Sabbath morning in autumn, a cloudless sky over- 

 head, and the deep blue waves breaking into white ripples 

 about the huge men of war, whose gay pennons bespeak 

 their nation. Eight-oared boats are passing from the ships 

 to land, bringing, it may be, some of their crews to join the 

 motley throng of worshippers gathered in the cathedral to 

 hear mass. Some of the women kneeling there have white 

 linen folded like dinner-napkins on their heads ; others have 

 the Spezzia hat — like a little cheeseplate, made of fancy 

 straw, and trimmed with scarlet braid ; others, again, have 

 the Genoese headdress — a gay cotton shawl like a counter- 

 pane, wrapped round them, covering the head. Some are 

 talking, some laughing gaily, but at the elevation of the 

 Host every sound ceases, and every knee is bowed in adora- 

 tion. Tes, there are some things reverenced in Italy — re- 

 verenced by rich and poor, by men and women, by every- 

 body everywhere. 



Prom the cathedral at Spezzia, by the help of the magic 

 Ceterach, a slight transition takes me to the old parish 

 church of Clevedon, where lies buried Arthur Hallam, the 

 talented son of the historian Hallam, and the " A. H. H." 

 of Tennyson's " In Memoriani " — the noblest monument 

 that man's love ever raised to man, on which Mr. Tennyson 

 lavished with the prodigality of boundless affluence the 

 wealth of his intellect, the riches of his soul. We poorer 

 mortals deck the graves of our beloved ones with simple 

 flowers that perish in the using. It was for Tennyson alone 

 to weave undying wreaths, each chaplet bright with the 

 hues of Paradise and fragrant with the breath of love. As 

 we stood by the simple marble slab placed on the grey wall 

 of the old church, we marvelled what manner of spirit had 

 animated the poor dust beneath our feet, capable of playing 

 on the chords of Mr. Tennyson's inmost nature, and of 

 awakening- strains of such perfect harmony. As in memory 

 I now recal that hour and the friend by my side, the name of 

 Arthur Hallam fades away and another takes its place ; but 

 the beautiful Latin inscription, rendered in simple English 

 verse by a loving hand still reads thus — 



" Farewell, thou dearest, best beloved, 

 Torn from our longing eyes ! 

 Slay we who mourn thee rest with thee, 

 With thee together rise." 



I may not venture to describe Arthur Hallam's resting- 

 place. We read in " In Memoriam :" — 



" The Danube to the Severn save 



The durken'd heart that beat no more ; 

 They laid him by the pleasant shore, 

 And in the hearing of the wave." 



As Ceterach is in my mind the embodiment of all that is 

 pure and enduring in friendship, so Botrychium lunaria, or 

 the Moonwort (occupying, like Ceterach, a separate niche 

 in Perndom), represents all that is capricious and unstable. 

 It is not that Botrychium gives you back black looks for 

 your care : on the contrary, it repays you with an appear- 

 ance of the most felicitous enjoyment. It seems to revel in 

 the change of air ; its round little pinna? look fatter ; its 

 tiny spike of fruit looks richer. You flatter yourself that at 

 last you have your friend safe ; but lo ! in the spring when 

 you look for him he is gone — utterly gone. Botrychium 

 can hardly be called a rare Pern, for it has a very wide 

 distribution ; but its minute size -and peculiar habit render 

 it difficult to find. Its bright green fronds are the colour 

 of the rich meadow land in which in Shropshire, Hereford- 

 shire, and other counties it is to be found. In any situation 

 it requires a keen eye to hunt it out. One of its loveliest 

 haunts is on Haldon Hill in Devonshire, where, in the 

 months of May and June, it grows freely on the richer por- 

 tions of the soil. 



When it opens its dewy eyes in the early morning of 

 spring what a panorama of beauty and glory dazzles them ! 

 Hills, bright with the green of early corn, sloping down to 



pretty farmsteads, nestling in orchards wearing a rosy veil 

 of bloom. Beneath the undulating hills, stretching far 

 away, the boundless expanse of ocean, over which the ad- 

 vancing sun makes a pathway of light ; and as he comes up 

 on his royal way, beacon after beacon on the grey range of 

 the Dartmoor Hills (which have been, as it were, a pillow 

 for my Pern), proclaims to the yet sleeping world that the 

 day god has arisen. On the right hand and on the left 

 beauty — beauty of tree and flower — beauty of hill and dale 

 — beauty of rock and river — and beauty exceedingly glorified 

 of ocean, girt on either hand by ruddy rocks boldly advanc- 

 ing into the angry waters or retiring far back, leaving a 

 gentle sweep of bay, where ocean-tossed mariners find rest, 

 and from whence the fisher's boat puts out in safety. 



Happy Botrychium, bred up in scenes like this ! No 

 wonder yon say to yourself when I ruthlessly dig you up 

 with my iron spade (the fibrous roots making a trowel 

 useless), "One woman may dig me up, but twenty shan't 

 make me live." I never have made you live, and I fear I 

 never shall. I treat Botrychium like an annual, and trans- 

 plant it yearly to the fernery; but I do not care for it. It 

 has but one form of beauty, and that is short-lived, and you 

 see it all at once. It comes up short and stumpy, just 

 where it pleases — it wo'n't be put out. It waves over no 

 broken stone, it adorns no tempest-beaten tree. If you 

 transplant it, it dies ; if you leave it, at the first hint of 

 winter it perishes. Often and often I have wished it might 

 be banished my favourite kingdom, and consigned to the 

 land of "Lords and Ladies," to which, in spite of all botany, 

 I believe it more than half belongs. 



Ophioglossum grows on Haldon, not far from Botrychium, 

 which it much resembles in its habits. In the lanes leading 

 to Haldon I have found Adiantum nigrum acutum, the 

 variegated Adiantum, a curious variety of Polypodium vul- 

 gare, having each pinnule cleft at the end, Trichomanes, 

 Blechnum spicant, &c. ; and in the gullies, the giant Filix- 

 mas, and Lastreas dilatata and spinulosa. 



Lastrea thelypteris has also found a home on beautiful 

 Haldon. The spot it has chosen is a green swamp in the 

 midst of the everlasting hills. The fronds make their way 

 through reed and briar up to the fair sunlight, and some- 

 times will measure a yard and even more in length. The- 

 lypteris is exceedingly troublesome in cultivation from its 

 creeping habit, and I should recommend it to be placed at 

 the back of the fernery, where there would be the greatest 

 amount of shade and damp, and where it would be out of 

 your way. Growing wild, Thelypteris is not without beauty, 

 but in cultivation it has nothing particular to recommend 

 it. The fertile fronds have no decided character of their 

 own, but look like a common frond, ill-grown and faded. 

 Its chief interest is the difficulty of getting it out of its 

 treacherous lurking-place, so green and safe in appearance, 

 so unsubstantial in reality. Bogland abounds in beauty. 

 The Golden Asphodel is there, and the little pink Pimpernel, 

 and there the Sundew lifts up its white blossoms to the 

 early sun ; and while you search for these and other trea- 

 sures, the startled kine turn round and look at you with 

 half curious, half doubtful eye. 



Not far from Haldon on the Chudleigh rocks I have found 

 a curious form of Polypodium vnlgare. I suspect it to be a 

 permanent variety ; and though it is not yet cambricum, 

 its pinna? being narrower and its fructification more abun- 

 dant, it approaches very near to it in some of the plants ; 

 and I look forward to cultivation improving its form and 

 size, which at present is rounder and smaller than the true 

 cambricum, the middle pinna? being the widest. 



I found my first wild Osmundas near Exmouth. They 

 grew in an old forsaken orchard, where yon took each step 

 in danger of being swamped. The marshy nature of the 

 ground suited these noble Perns, and they grew up right 

 royally on every side, their fronds waving in the breeze. I 

 never saw more beautiful sunsets than there are at Exmouth. 

 The painter Danby told me he made his home there on that 

 account. He had made long wanderings, seeking for the 

 beauties of the setting sun, and had found the concentration 

 of all he sought for at Exmouth. Shortly after Danby told 

 me this the curtain of night fell on the painter, and his own 

 sun set for e" or. — Pilix-fcemixa. 



[Editors always assume the privilege of correcting evident 

 mistakes in the contributions they receive ; and they noticed 



