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The Equipment of the Fern Hunter 

 is of the simplest ; some carry a tin vasculum, which is so 

 far good that it protects the fronds from injury ; it, how- 

 ever, has the disadvantage when one is clambering over 

 the rough and precipitous ground so dear to Ferns of 

 swinging round and getting in the way, and personally we 

 abjure anything but a strong trowel, a stout hooked stick, 

 a cloth bag like a fish basket, which can be rolled up, a 

 pocketful of old newspapers, and some string. A "find" 

 discovered, we dig it up carefully by the roots, separate it 

 from any associated common ones, wrap some moss or old 

 fronds round the roots, envelop it in a sheet of paper, slip 

 it into the bag, and sling this behind us by a string over 

 our shoulders. At the first opportunity we dip the roots 

 in water, and when we reach our temporary haven at the 

 end of the day we instal it in a box with a good supply of 

 fresh wet moss, and place this in a cool shady place. The 

 Fern is then good for a fortnight or more, until finally 

 installed at home. Puzzles, of course, crop up in such 

 expeditions ; " finds " sometimes occur in awkward places, 

 are seen at the top of a high wall far out of reach, or in 

 hedges where the tree roots almost require dynamite to 

 liberate the Fern, or, as in one of our experiences, it may 

 be so huge as to need two men and a horse and cart for 

 dislodgment and conveyance, or, finally, as in the case of 

 that beautiful Fern P. v. Prestoni, it may be seated so deep 

 in a rock chink that the finder had to roll the rock itself 

 across country and actually grow the Fern out of its 

 hermitage at home. We, however, only know of one case 

 which baffled the enthusiast, a charming Lady Fern, 

 growing in a deep drain, in the mouth of which, at the 

 base of a massive stone dyke, the merest tips of the fronds 

 had reached the light with the roots under the dyke and on 

 the inaccessible other side ot it. We nearly suffered such 

 a catastrophe ourselves once, finding a beautifully crested 



