THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BRITISH PLANTS 419 
gardener, and consequently the trade collector greedily tears up 
anything besides Filix-mas—except, perhaps, bracken—in hope of 
a higher price. In less than fifty years I have seen the dis- 
appearance of the English maidenhair (Asplenium T'richomanes) and 
the hart’s-tongue from most of the country round London; and 
nowadays cheap and fast railway accommodation enables the depre- 
dators to extend the field of their operations to the more prolific, 
ecause moister, regions of the West of England. It is true 
that the fern wealth of Devon, Somerset, Hereford, or West 
Gloucestershire could better survive such depredations than the 
London as the Devonshire lanes look to recoup themselves for their 
railway fares by the wholesale scale of their operations. In these 
Cases, moreover, the actual collectors are probably mere employés 
of Covent Garden dealers. en we read of three men with a 
horse and trap carting away ten sacks of ferns each week for three 
weeks in succession, we can understand that a county like Devon, 
that depends largely on the attractions of its fern-grown lanes for 
the tourist, is led to take action in its own defence. In the Lake 
district and elsewhere men, who certainly in so ases do not 
cultivate ferns, constantly advertise that they are prepared to 
supply collections of different native species at a small price. 
mong these are some of the local clergy. When we come 
presently to consider possible remedies, I would ask you to 
those that can be obtained readily in large quantities and are 
Ferns im- 
roses best answer to this description, daffodils, fritillaries, lilies-of- 
ar may yet do much damage, as in the case of one of whom Mr. 
of British orchids—dug it up and sold it to a florist for half-a-crown 
as a new kind of Caleeolaria! 
t 
Here, too, it is the neighbourhood of the large towns that suffers 
rast and a limited number of popular showy species that are most 
in dan i i i 
n ger. The maidenhair fern has been exterminated 
several gs ear New York by _ ristmas fern 
(Polystichum acrostichoides) is said to be ruthlessly consumed b 
florists, + n Connecticut the ford or limbing fern 
See EEE eie one crs coc 
a . K. G. Britton, loc. cit. 
t+ Mary Perle Anderson, loc. cit. 
} Mrs. E. Britton, ‘‘ Vanishing Wild Flowers,” Torreya, vol. i. (1901), p. 89; 
and David S. George, The Plant World, vol. vi. (1903), p. 160. 
