68 PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Por the first loves to bask in the sunny ray. 



And the last woos the moon's soft light : 

 But day or night, the Lady Pern 



May catch and charm your eyes, 

 When the sun to gold her emeralds turn, 



Or the moon lends her silver dyes. 

 But seek her not in early May, 



For a Sibyl then she looks. 

 With wrinkled fronds that seem to say, 



' Shut up are my wizard books !' 

 Then search for her in the Summer woods, 



Where rills keep moist the ground, 

 Where Poxgloves from their spotted hoods 



Shake pilfering insects round ; 

 Where up, and clambering all about. 



The Traveller's Joy flings forth 

 Its snowy awns, that in and out 



Like feathers strew the earth : 

 Pair are the tufts of Meadow-sweet 



That haply blossom nigh ; 

 Pair are the whorls of violet 



Prunella shows hard by j 

 But nor by burn, in wood, or vale. 



Grows anything so fair 

 As the plumy crest of emerald pale, 

 That waves in the wind and soughs in the gale. 

 Of the Lady Pern, when the sunbeams turn 



To gold her delicate hair !" 



The Lady Fern is very generally distributed through- 

 out England, and is still more common in Ireland, 

 ■where it abounds on almost all the bogs. The light 

 and arrowy fronds arise in circular tufts from the 

 rhizome. This is very large, extending itself some 

 inches above the surface of the earth, and forming a 

 base to the slender fronds. During early spring, when 

 we wander into the woods for violets and primrose 



