72 FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN 



thrive best near the sea. Though not exclusively con- 

 fined to the sea-coast, it is far more frequent there than 

 on inland soils, and at Penzance, in Cornwall, is one of 

 the most common plants, springing out of every wall, 

 and being as general on the hedge-bank as the primrose. 

 It is abundant at St. Michael's Mount, but nowhere in 

 England grows to so large a size as among the damp 

 rocks of the Lizard Point. It is also luxuriant at Torquay, 

 in Devonshire. Sometimes this fern, like other plants 

 which frequent the sea-coast, flourishes on high moun- 

 tains, and the botanist has welcomed its green fronds on 

 the heights of Snowdon. Some summers since, it 

 grew in profusion on the high rocks at a short distance 

 from Tunbridge Wells ; but as that neighbourhood has, 

 by its rare plants, attracted the attention of many 

 botanists, and as fern lovers are sometimes not so con- 

 siderate for others as they should be, it became less 

 abundant, and perhaps may be by this time altogether 

 eradicated by the heedless waste with which it was 

 gathered. It is a plant of but local occurrence, even 

 on the sea-coast, growing only on the southern and 

 western coasts of England and Wales, but it is plen- 

 tiful in the Channel Islands. Its long black wiry roots 

 penetrate far into the fissures of rocks. The young 

 fronds appear in May, are matured by August, and 

 remain green through the winter. The underground 

 stem is brown, tufted, and densely clothed with a mass 

 of bristle-like scales. Similar scales are scattered here 

 and there on the stalk of the frond, which is black at 

 the base. In the most luxuriant specimens the frond 

 attains the height of a foot and a half, but its average 



