50 BRITISH FERNS 



is a fair chance that he has discovered something quite new, always, 

 we may add, a possibility in this connection. We may now turn 

 to the needful equipment of the Fern-hunter, and the provision 

 for the preservation of his finds in a living state until he can instal 

 them at home. The orthodox equipment is a strong trowel, and a 

 vasculum or oblong metal box provided with a lid and means of 

 suspension over the shoulders ; but our experience shows that 

 when clambering about rough declivities at steep angles this 

 apparatus is apt to be a nuisance, and our own personal equipment 

 consists merely of a ball of string, a few newspapers, a stout reliable 

 hooked stick, and the inevitable trowel, most of which will go into 

 one's pockets, and thus constitute absolutely no impedimenta. 

 Given a find, we extract it carefully with as much of the root as 

 possible, wrap the roots in moss or grass, which can be usually 

 obtained close by, and roll the straightened fronds lightly up in 

 paper, secured with string. The parcel can then be either pocketed 

 if small, or slung over the shoulders if large, the earliest opportunity 

 being taken of giving the roots a soak in water, for if these get dry, 

 it is a great check upon the plant. Ferns so treated will stand for 

 a week or two without detriment to their vitality, if packed upright 

 in a box with moss between them. Of course, it occasionally 

 happens that the successful hunter is confronted with difficulties 

 which will tax his inventive powers to overcome. One of the 

 writer's finds on Dartmoor weighed about i-J cwt., a huge mass 

 of a splendidly tasselled Lastrea montana, which was obviously 

 not amenable to extraction by a pocket trowel or transport in 

 paper and string. A labourer and a fork and spade were ob- 

 tained from a neighbouring village, but even they did not suffice, 

 and the services of a man in a quarry cart had eventually to be 

 enlisted to convey the mass on the first stage of its journey to 

 London. On another occasion a very desirable Hartstongue was 

 noticed just over the arch spanning a Devonshire stream, and only 

 just within reach of the trowel lashed to the stick aforesaid. If so 

 dislodged, however, it would inevitably fall into the rapid stream 

 below and be lost. This problem was solved by the fortunate 

 presence of an umbrella, which being opened and suspended under 

 the arch by a string, eventually received the prize when dislodged. 

 A second similar bridge difficulty with a variety of Polypodium 

 vulgare was met differently ; the umbrella could not be used as the 

 wall was sheer, but by means of a loose slip-knot of string, the 

 fronds were lassoed, and when the root was dislodged, the plant 

 was drawn up and bagged in the usual way. In another instance 

 a finely crested Hartstongue was seen about ten feet up a high 

 wall, quite out of reach, and this was got at by hoisting a village 

 lad upon our shoulders and instructing him what to do. This find, 

 by the way, turned out to be something new even in that protean 

 species. To conclude, we cannot refrain from reverting to the 



