56 FERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



By tlie rippling brook, and the -wimpling burn, 



And the tall and stately forest tree ; 

 When the merle and the mavis sweetly sing, 

 And the blue jay makes the woods to ring. 

 And the pheasant flies on whirring wing, 



Beneath a verdurous canopy. 



" The feathery Fern ! the feathery Fern ! 



An emerald sea it waveth wide, 

 . And seems to flash, and gleam, and burn. 

 Like the gentle flow of a golden tide ; 

 On bushy slope or in leafy glade, 

 Amid the twilight depth of shade. 

 By interlacing branches made. 



And trunks with lichens glorified." 



This plant is the Lophddium muUiflorum of some 

 botanists. 



6. PoLYSTiCHUM (Polystichum) . 



1. P. Lonchitis (Rough Alpine Fern, or Holly Pern). — 

 Fronds rigid, simply pinnate, pinnae not lobed, serrated, 

 spinous, eared at the base. The plants of this genus 

 are nearly allied to those of Lastrea, yet they are truly 

 distinct, a most marked feature of difference being in 

 the form of the indusium which covers the seed-clusters. 

 This is circular, and not kidney-shaped, and is attached 

 by' a small stalk at the centre. The Polystichums, too, 

 are more rigid in texture than the Lastreas, and more 

 spinous. 



We have not many ferns growing on high mountains 

 exposed to the bleak winds ; yet the Holly Pern, like 

 the plant from which it takes its name, tlirives well 

 on alpine heights, and, indeed, is found only in such 

 situations. 



