OSMUNDA REGALIS. 300 



It is SO generally distributed over the British Islands, in 

 swampy places, that I forbear publishing the immense list of 

 localities with which I have been furnished through the kind- 

 ness of correspondents. In Ireland, particularly in Connaught, 

 it is most abundant : in Cunnemara I have often observed it 

 covering the small islands in the lakes with a dense mass of its 

 luxuriant fronds, those in the centre being more erect, those 

 around the margins more pendulous. Of the pendulous habit 

 I noticed a beautiful instance at Killarney, where it completely 

 fringes the river between the lakes, and certainly forms a most 

 prominent feature in that lovely but neglected portion of Kil- 

 larney's far-famed scenery. So altered is the usual character 

 of this fern, that its long fronds arch gracefully over, and dip 

 their masses of seed in the crystal water, while the saucy coots, 

 from beneath the canopy thus afforded them, gaze fearlessly on 

 the visitors who are continually passing by. One of the boat- 

 men employed by Sir Walter Scott, on the occasion of his visit 

 to KiUamey, told me that Sir Walter scarcely uttered a sylla- 

 ble in praise of the scenery until he came to this spot ; and 

 here he stopped the rowers, and exclaimed, " This is worth 

 coming to see ! " In the island of Achill, this fern very 

 often fringes the little streams which descend from the moun- 

 tains, rarely, however, rising above their water-worn channels, 

 and thus escaping the violence of the mountain winds : in a 

 sheltered farm in the possession of Mr. Long, it has forsaken 

 these water- courses and established itself in the fields, where 

 he found it a troublesome weed, and very difficult to eradicate. 

 I was amused to see it towering above his cabbages and pota- 

 toes, and intermixed with his oats and wheat. In Scotland this 

 beautiful plant is also common, and often grows to a gigantic 

 size : on the banks of Loch Fyne, where its habit is compara- 

 tively rigid and erect (as represented in the figure at page 310), 

 I have measured fronds eight feet in height. In the bogs of 

 Lancashire it is abundant but less luxuriant, and it occurs not 

 uncommonly in all the northern counties of England ; it is also 

 of frequent occurrence in North and South Wales, Cornwall, 

 and Devonshire, and is scattered in hundreds of localities 

 throughout the southern counties approaching the vicinity of 

 London, on Epping Forest, Keston Heath, and Kavanagh 

 Wood, near Brentwood, a locality known to old Gerarde. 



