816 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



prise. In the splendid surroundings which, as if by the wave of 

 a magician's wand, had been so suddenly unfolded to our view, 

 the mere worshiper of the beautiful in nature had sufficient to 

 demand his warmest devotion ; but to the scientist the spot was 

 more especially holy ground. My friend the geologist beheld in 

 those great Kerry hills — the Magillicuddy Reeks, the Toomies 

 Mountain, and magnificent Mangerton — one of the oldest forma- 

 tions in Europe ; while the botanist speculated upon the treasures 

 which lay scattered above and around him in the shape of ferns 

 and club-mosses and purple broom. 



The following day we specially dedicated to the collecting of 

 those rare and delicate ferns which abound in mossy nooks and in 

 spots kept constantly moist by the spray of some foaming cascade 

 as it leaped from ledge to ledge in its impetuous course. One of 

 the ferns, specimens of which we were most desirous to obtain, 

 was the Trichornanes, or bristle fern. This exceedingly beautiful 

 plant, though plentiful in Madeira, is absolutely unknown in any 

 European country except Ireland, and even there is only now to 

 be found in certain districts of the extreme west. It may be de- 

 scribed as having fronds three or four times pinnatifid, segments 

 alternate, linear, entire or two-cleft, obtuse ; involucres solitary in 

 the axils of the upper segments. The bristle fern delights in shade 

 and moisture, and our first find was in a rocky cleft in the immedi- 

 ate neighborhood of the Tork waterfall. Subsequently, within the 

 dim recesses of a cave, the mouth of which opened upon the upper 

 lake and could only be approached by a boat, we discovered sev- 

 eral splendid specimens, one of which, with a creeping rhizome, 

 some three feet long, contained no fewer than thirty perfect fronds. 

 Nothing that I have ever seen in my varied experience of fern-life 

 equaled the delicacy and pellucidness of these fronds, nurtured in 

 the darkness and the mist. The veins were so prominent, and the 

 green portion so like a membranous wing around the veins, that it 

 resembled more a beautiful sea-weed than a fern. In this natural 

 cave we also discovered some of our finest specimens of the Adi- 

 antum, or maiden-hair fern. This plant is called the true maiden- 

 hair, to distinguish it from some other ferns which share its famil- 

 iar name. The bright evergreen tint, the elegant form, and lightly 

 waving attitudes of this fern render it very attractive, and when 

 growing against the sides of the sea-washed rock, or any moist 

 place in any abundance, no fern exceeds it in beauty. It has not 

 been found in Scotland, and in but few districts in the south of 

 England ; in the ravines and mountain gorges throughout the 

 west of Ireland, however, the collector is seldom permitted to go 

 unrewarded for his diligent search. Two other rare species we 

 also discovered in this " home of the ferns " — that exquisite variety 

 of the polypody denominated Hibernicum, and the beautiful beech 



