of Guernsey. 



55 



commonest, growing in walls everywhere, but attaining special 

 luxuriance in hedge-banks, where it forms a prominent and 

 pretty object throughout the winter and spring. See its light 

 green tufts now springing from among the decaying foliage of 

 the hedges, and try its effects mingled with primroses, or other 

 wild flowers, and the Black Maiden-hair Spleenwort will 

 always be one of your favourites. 



11. Ceterach ofBcinarum or the Scale fern is an easily re- 

 cognised form, harsh in texture, and of no use for bouquets. It 

 is a wall fern, and very rare in Guernsey, though abundant in 

 England and France. For years I only knew one station for 

 it, and that on a newly built wall. I have taken a great in- 

 terest in the three roots on this wall, but in the ten years I can 

 hardly see any increase, nor does it show in the neighbouring 

 walls. This spring after searching a meadow at the Yale for 

 flowering plants, I crossed a wall into the high road, and was 

 delighted to see several specimens of Ceterach in the wall op- 

 posite, though as that structure was in an almost ruinous con- 

 dition, I fear the fern may be exterminated in rebuilding 

 operations. I am pleased to be able to report that I have since 

 discovered it in a neighbour's garden, where it is self-sown. I 

 have heard of it growing in greenhouses in various parts of the 

 island, and I have planted out a great many roots, so that I 

 hope this fern will continue to figure in the Guernsey list. 



12. Scolopendrium vulgare, Hart's Tongue, or Languede 

 Bceuf, is too well-known to need any description here. Look- 

 ing at a specimen-frond on a card, one could form no idea of 

 its picturesque appearance in the banks of a shaded lane. I 

 knew no locality in England where they make so splendid a 

 show as in the water-lanes from the Cheyne to Petit Bot, or in 

 the lane at Moulin Huet. It is the luxuriance and graceful 

 appearance of this fern in the banks which make a first visit to 

 these spots have such a las ting and agreeable impression ; but 

 the fame of their beauty draws troops of excursionists to 



