542 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



following lines written by Sir Walter Scott, who correctly described the 

 situation it most delights in : 



Hie away, hie away. 

 Over bank and over brae, 

 Where the copse wood is the greenest, 

 Where the fountains glisten sheenest, 

 Where the Lady Fern, grows strongest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest, 

 Where the black-cock sweetest sips it, 

 Where the fairy latest trips it; 

 Hie to haunts right seldom seen, 

 Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green. 

 Over bank and over brae 

 Hie away, hie away ! 



— Waverley, vol. i., chap. xii. 



The typical North American form is identical in habit and size with the 

 European one, and although various attempts have been made to separate 

 them specifically, the opinion of Hooker, Mettenius, and Milde, that they 

 belong to one common species, is undoubtedly correct. 



As a British plant, the Lady Fern is first mentioned by Johnson in his 

 edition of Gerard's " Herbal," where, besides giving a description of it and 

 publishing the date of its discovery to the very day, he adds : "It groweth 

 abundantly on the shadowy moist rocks by Mapledurham, near Petersfield, 

 in Hampshire. John G-oodyer, July 4th, 1633." The localities where the 

 Lady Fern is to be found in a wild state in the United Kingdom are too 

 numerous to be mentioned here. It is sufficient to say that, although common 

 in the South and in the Midland Counties of England, where it occurs at 

 all elevations up to 3000ft., it is still more abundant in Ireland ; indeed, 

 upon the Irish bogs it is so plentiful that it is used for packing purposes, 

 as the common Bracken is in England. It is rarer in the northern parts 

 of Wales and England, and in Scotland. 



This species, which, whether planted in the outdoor Fernery or grown 

 in pots, is very impatient of water at the roots, is one of the easiest-grown 

 and most decorative of all the British Ferns. Nothing published on the 

 subject up to this day can give better information as regards its requirements 

 and its general use than the statement by Mr. T. Moore contained in his 

 " British Ferns," from which we extract the following : " When placed about 



