334 BRITISH FERNS 



XXXVI 



Barnesii {Moore) 

 Mr. J. M. Barnes. Westmoreland. 1865. 

 2 ft. 2 in. 

 Svn. adpressa Barnes (Woll.) 



One of the rarest and most beautiful of British Ferns ; — its 

 perhaps most marked characteristic, — the perfectly horizontal " lie " 

 of the pinnules, which gives such an air of lightness, and makes it 

 look like a very ladder of the Fairies, — is quite obliterated in a 

 nature print. 



Who will not read with the liveliest interest and sympathy Mr. 

 Barnes' account of its discovery ! "Z. montuna Barnesii was found 

 on a bare mountain side exposed to the north, it grew on a slightly 

 raised breast or ridge of earth close to a spring of water ; there 

 were three or four separate and good-sized plants ; — its aspect to any 

 Fern-hunter would have been most startling, to me it was astound- 

 ing ; here, on a bleak mountain side, where other Ferns were 

 stunted and starved, stood this marvellous-looking plant, with its 

 bold, upright, narrow fronds two feet high, its dark green colour, 

 its pinnules, standing in their peculiar way, and its robust habit, 

 utterly unlike anything I had ever seen in creation ; I believe my 

 first feeling was that I must be in a dream, — the next that it must 

 be a new species, — and when I found it to be a montana I sat down 

 to admire it, feeling the happiest of Fern-hunters. 



It is unfortunate this Fern prints so badly that no one can form 

 any correct idea of what the plant is like from seeing either a 

 pressed frond or a print. 



