110 



HOLLY FERN. 



I have more than once mentioned Cwm Idwell as a station 

 for ferns : below is a very humble attempt to give an idea of 

 this wild spot. It was sketched in a memorandum-book, and 

 carried on my back among fern-fronds for many a weary mile. 

 Cwm Idwell is a vast semicircular rampart of rock, near the 

 middle of which, invisible at a distance, is the perpendicular 

 fissure called TwU dhu : through this falls a mountain stream, 

 which, emerging at the foot, wanders, amongst fragments of 

 disrupted rock, into Llyn Idwell, — that dark, still lake which 

 reposes in the natural basin; issuing thence, it joins the waste 

 water of Llyn Ogwen, and the united stream flows through 

 the mighty pass of Nant Frangon to the sea. In Llyn Idwell 

 grow Isoetes, Subularia, and Lobelia : on the broken ground 

 about the lake, Lycopodium alpinum, L. Selago, L. selaginoi- 

 des, and L. clavatum, every conceivable form of Cj'stopteris 

 fragilis, with Allosorus crispus, and Hymenophyllum unila- 

 terale : a little higher up, Polystichum Lonchitis, Asplenium 

 viride, Rhodiola rosea, an alpine Thalictrum, and, that rarity 

 of rarities, Anthericum serotinum : and, still higher, above and 

 beyond the summits that we see, Woodsia Ilvensis and Lyco- 

 podium annotinum. Oh ! it is a matchless place for a botanical 

 ramble ! 



