THE PRESERVATION OF OUR WILD PLANTS. 



399 



of Orchid were on sale in Farringdon Market at a penny a root, and none 

 of these are the result of cultivation. The Primrose and the Male Fern 

 are more tolerant of London cultivation, though in its murky atmosphere 

 and gas-saturated soil they can hardly be said to flourish, and, rather 

 than increase, generally require frequent renewal. Thus, apart from, and 

 antecedent to, all foolish and error-based political symbolism, the spring- 

 tide glories of pale clustering blossoms and unrolling fronds have long 

 led to a wholesale rooting-up of these species in the neighbourhood, not 

 only of London, but also of our other large towns, by dealers who find it 

 cheaper to steal their wares ready grown. In 1869, long before the death 

 of Lord Beaconsfield, Messrs. Trimen and Dyer, in the " Flora of Middle- 

 sex," write of the Primrose that it " has become scarce round London 

 from being dug up and carried away for sale " ; whilst of the Ferns they 

 say that they "in consequence of being marketable have become of late 

 years very scarce in the vicinity of London ; some have been quite 

 eradicated." Qsmunda was last recorded in Ken Wood in 1813, and 

 Lastrea Oreopteris for the last time in Middlesex in 1855 : the Primrose 

 is well-nigh unknown within twenty miles of the metropolis, only sur- 

 viving in strictly watched game-preserves ; while its disappearance from 

 Epping Forest is being followed, mirabile dictu, by that of the prolific 

 Foxglove. Miss Robinson, of Saddlescomb — a hollow in the South 

 Downs — reports its complete extinction in that immediate neighbourhood, 

 owing to the depredations of the Brighton hawkers ; * and similar 

 accounts reach me from Plymouth f and other large towns. 



The case of our Ferns is, however, even more serious, since there are no 

 specific limits to the ambitions of that amateur gardener, and consequently 

 the trade collector greedily tears up anything besides Filix-mas — except, 

 perhaps, bracken — in hope of a higher price. In less than fifty years 

 I have seen the disappearance of the English Maidenhair (Asplenium 

 Trichomanes) and the Hart's-tongue from most of the country round 

 London ; and nowadays cheap and fast railway accommodation enables 

 the depredators to extend the field of their operations to the more prolific, 

 because moister, regions of the West of England. It is true that the 

 Fern wealth of Devon, Somerset, Hereford, or West Gloucestershire could 

 better survive such depredations than the south-eastern area, which is 

 naturally less favourable to Fern-growth ; but this is only a question of 

 degree and of time, and it must be borne in mind that the men who 

 range so far afield from London as the Devonshire lanes look to recoup 

 themselves for their railway fares by the wholesale scale of their opera- 

 tions. In these cases, moreover, the actual collectors are probably mere 

 employes of Covent Garden dealers. When we read of three men with 

 a horse and trap carting away ten sacks of Ferns each week for three 

 weeks in succession, we can understand that a county like Devon, that 

 depends largely on the attractions of its Fern-grown lanes for the tourist, 

 is led to take action in its own defence. In the Lake district and elsewhere 

 men, who certainly in some cases do not cultivate Ferns, constantly advertise 

 that they are prepared to supply collections of different native species at a 

 small price. Among these are some of the local clergy. When we come 



* Nature Notes, vol. xv. (1904), p. 196. 



f T. R. Archer Briggs, Flora of Plymouth (1880), p. 278. 



