MORE OF THE SMALLER BOG-PLANTS 247 



both young and mature, the garden holds no verdure 

 more startling in its clean radiance of tone. And the 

 outline of the fronds, plumed and opulently-lobed, on 

 invisible, dark stems, is no less lovely than their colour. 

 The Oak-fern, abundant in the Alpine woods, is to be 

 found with us in the North as a rarity, but abundant 

 where it occurs, jewelling some high damp bank of moss 

 and rottenness with the refulgent green of its plumes. 

 In cultivation it is very easy to establish in luxuriance in 

 any rich, cool corner of the rock-work or slope of the 

 bog, where sun will not parch it, nor winds wreak havoc 

 among its brittle stalks. With me, indeed, in a cool 

 Alpine district, it grows rampageously even in the open, 

 exposed to the utmost ferocity of our pale northern sun ; 

 but in hotter, dryer places it will certainly be the better 

 of moisture and shade and shelter. The third of our 

 Polypodies, calcareum, a rare plant from the stony screes 

 under Ingleborough, is only for dry torrid banks of loose 

 stone, through which it loves to run. Its fronds have the 

 dusty tone of phegopteris, and in design, while finer than 

 the Beech, have not the rich loveliness of the Oak. It 

 requires full sun and exposure. Last of damp-loving 

 little ferns comes Cystopteris montana, never to be 

 overpraised, which I have collected in the Alps, and 

 which occurs rarely as a high-Alpine in Scotland. This is 

 found in the dampest places under shady rocks, a most 

 attractive thing, quite unlike fragilis and alpina, with 

 bi-oadly triangular fronds of very fine lacy foliage. This 

 I find, is of the happiest, easiest culture in any rich, cool, 

 shady corner. 



Of the Filmy Ferns, Trichomanes and Hymenophyllum, 

 the less said the better ; they are as nearly impossible as 

 any plants can be ; the Maiden-hair is not for every one, 

 but in damp, westerly climates may easily be made a 

 denizen, if not a weed, of dark moist corners and caverns 



