Fern Collecting. 9 



they will soon begin to grow vigorously, and after that 

 patience is the only quality required on your part to 

 ensure your proper reward. 



You will soon learn to distinguish ferns from all 

 other plants when you meet with them. When you 

 find a fern, take notice of the soil and situation it is 

 growing in, and in attempting its cultivation imitate 

 those conditions as nearly as possible. The pretty 

 wall rue spleenwort loves to grow in the full sun, upon 

 and amongst sandstone rocks. You will see plenty 

 of it on the approaches to the Suspension Bridge at 

 Clifton, and you may find the common maiden-hair 

 spleenwort keeping it company if you look sharp. It 

 is in the shady, dank, almost dripping hollow, or on the 

 slope of a water- course, that you are most likely to 

 find the lovely lady fern, the hard fern, and the royal 

 osmund, yet these will sometimes make a bonny show 

 upon dry banks beside a dusty highway, where, perhaps, 

 for miles the common lastrea is the prevailing fern of 

 the district. In Epping Forest there are thousands of 

 pollard trees on the awkward stems of which are 

 perched, like wreaths of honour, tufts of the common 

 polypody. I used when a boy to tear them off to line 

 my basket with when birdnesting, for that forest was 

 my playground. If yon want to see the bracken you 

 need not travel far, but if you would cultivate it you 

 must notice that it grows to its grandest stature on 

 mellow, yellowish loam, and is rather poor and stunted 

 on sand and peat, though not always so. Observe 

 always how they look when they are at home, and 

 thereby learn to persuade them to believe themselves 



