BALL THE INDIGENOUS FERNS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 147 



the botanist. Flora, if I may be allowed the personification, is a 

 companion that is ever by his side ; and if but an attentive ear be 

 turned towards much that she has to impart — for she is a holy hand- 

 maiden — she will teach (as the lilies of the field are being considered) 

 that " the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them 

 that have -pleasure therein.'''' — Ps. cxi. 2. But many shrink from 

 this delightful study by the Latin nomenclature which is necessarily 

 adopted, and by the broad scope which the science takes. I confess 

 the influence of this upon myself, but the circumstances of little 

 spare time, and the being in a neighbourhood rich in ferns (*) 

 induced me to take up one of the branches, Native Filices, as a 

 specialty. 



From the comparative simplicity of their structure when com- 

 pared with that of phsenogams or flowering plants, Ferns, which 

 belong to the second series, (the cryptogams or flowerless plants) , 

 require much less study to understand them. And from the fact 

 that here in Nova Scotia at least, and generally in the north tem- 

 perate zone, the proportion of ferns to the ph&nogams is not perhaps 

 more than 1 to 20, this branch of the study is of much narrower 

 scope : whilst with such facility for study as is given in the opening 

 chapters of Moore's shilling edition of British Ferns, the science of 

 Pteridology is easily mastered. 



And well indeed does the pleasure of seeking for, finding, and 

 examining the rarer species and varieties repay the trouble of mas- 

 tering the technical terms by which the plants are described. Some 

 mental application to this point is absolutely necessary ;. and with- 

 out spending some pains in this, the pleasing conviction will never 

 be gained of how almost perfect is Botany as a science of descrip- 

 tion. 



The Indigenous Ferns are graceful in habit of growth, they 

 give charm to the landscape and have peculiarities of beauty and 

 elegance which do not belong to flowering plants. Who has failed 

 to notice the exquisite beauty of light and shade which towards 

 sun-set characterize the small hillocks of Dicksonia punctilobula so 



(*) Canterbury, Kent, England. 



