5236 Notes of a Tour in Switzerland. 



as for a liberal supply of other alpine plants, for which my best 

 acknowledgments and thanks are due. When I speak of the scarcity 

 or the absence of certain species, again let it be borne in mind that 

 my rambles were principally confined to the ordinary Swiss excur- 

 sions ; so that it is more than probable that the localities richest 

 in botany might not have been visited. My remarks, throughout, 

 relate only to what fell under my own experience. Speaking gene- 

 rally, I should not say that, on the whole, ferns in Switzerland attain 

 a larger size, or more luxuriant growth, than they commonly do with 

 us, and in some instances perhaps scarcely so much so. These are, 

 however, exceptions. Polypodiura calcareum, for instance, (call it 

 P. " Robertianum," if any prefer that name), sometimes exhibited 

 gigantic fronds which quite surprised me, in size almost competing 

 with an ordinary frond of Pteris aquilina ! Cystopteris fragilis, again, 

 and Allosorus crispus, were in some places extraordinary large and 

 fine ; and on the old bridge, at Berne, Asplenium Ruta-muraria grew 

 in broad dense masses, a yard or more in diameter. I had fancied to 

 myself that I had many a time seen Polypodium Dryopteris and Phe- 

 gopteris at their best estate and highest perfection in various parts of 

 Yorkshire, Cumberland, Wales, &c. ; but in this I was mistaken. On 

 leaving the chalet, or inn, which stands at the top of the Tete Noire, 

 the road towards Martigny soon leads through a pine wood, in which 

 these ferns struck me as displaying a grace and elegance of which I 

 had never seen the like before. Under the gloomy shade of the 

 pines the delicate fronds were scattered about over a surface of rich 

 golden moss, with but little or no interruption from grosser vegetation. 

 The spot seemed made on purpose to display their charms. To a 

 lover of ferns it was an exquisite sight, which I shall not readily for- 

 get ; and I felt inclined to exclaim with Henry, on sight of Anne 

 Bullen— 



" beauty, 

 Till now I never knew thee." • 



Asplenium viride, a local, if not a rare species in England, but where 

 it is found growing in great abundance, was very plentiful in Switzer- 

 land, more so even than its (with us) more common ally A. Tricho- 

 manes. 



In closing these remarks, I wish it to be understood that a few 

 plants only out of numbers have been spoken of, and selected for 

 more marked and particular observation. Scores of highly interesting 





