76 ray's woodsia. 



me with a frond. " Eeorossing the bridge," says that gentleman, " we 

 pursued the course of the stream, which, almost immediately below the 

 Snout, takes a sudden turn, and thus we found our track hemmed in by 

 the over-laden Tees on our right hand, and the lofty basaltic rocks called 

 Falcon Chnts on our left. My eye was now anxiously directed to the face 

 of these rocks, to discover, if possible, the chief object in taking our present 

 com-se — Woodsia Ilvensis. Kain now began to fall heavily, and the wmd, 

 which had been all day very tempestuous, bore it against us so as to render 

 observation, either of looahty or objects, very imperfect. However, after 

 tracing, as near as I can judge, about four hundred yards, I espied some 

 small specks of green through the broken fragments of a stream which 

 poured over the Glints, and under which T soon stood, pulling hastily the 

 patches T had seen, and these, to my delight, proved to be two small plants 

 of the Woodsia, mixed with a few fronds of Asplenium viride and Cysto- 

 pteris fragilis." Mr. King found several specimens in ]841. "Here,'' 

 saj's Mr. King, " I cast around many an anxious look for Woodsia Ilvensis ; 

 at length, after much searching, and a good wetting from the drip of the 

 water from the huge basaltic rocks, to my great joy I espied two small 

 plants, which were instantly secured : a little farther on we saw three more 

 under a bush of Prunus Padus, but, not lildng to destroy the plant, we left 

 the roots of these in the crevice of the rock where they were growing." Mr. 

 J. Backhouse, jun., Mr. Babington, Mr. Borrer, and other botanists, have 

 repeatedly verified this Falcon Glints station ; and I have to acknowledge 

 my thanks to these botanists for the opportunity of examinmg and compar- 

 ing specimens, and to Mr. Kippist for a specimen gathered in the same looa- 

 hty by Mr. Woods : the five fronds represented at b, in the cut at page 

 VI, are from this station, (see Phytol. i. 74 and 1 14). 



Westjiobeland. — The follo\^ing interesting note ajjpeared in the ' Phy- 

 tologist' for October, 1842. " On the 17th of 8th month [August], 1798, 

 my father gathered a single frond of a fern from Grosby-Ravensworth 

 Church, Westmoreland. Being unable to name it, he showed it to several 

 botanists in London, who could not decide what it was ; Lewis Dillwyn at 

 length sent it to Sir J. E. Smith, who returned the specimen labelled as 

 follows: — 'Polypodium arvonicum, With, et Fl. Brit. J. E. Smith. P. 

 ilvense. With, d Acrost. ilvense, Hiids. (not Linn.) Acr. alpinum, Bolt.' 

 The original specimen is now in my possession, with Sir J. E. Smith's auto- 

 graph ; the frond is 3 J inches in length, from the bottom of the rachis to 

 the apex, and about '2 inches from the lowest pinnse to the apex. The 

 church has been pulled down within the last few years." — Silvanus Thomp- 

 son, in Phytol. i. 331. I have not seen this specimen, and therefore enter- 

 tain a doubt whether it belong to this species or the next. "Anew station 

 for Woodsia Ilvensis has been found in Westmoreland. As it is many miles 

 from the Teesdale habitat, I consider it an interesting and important 



