FERNS AND MOSSES. 53 
That man may justly be considered a benefactor to his 
species who opens or facilitates new sources of enjoyment, 
equally with him who causes wheat to grow where it never 
grew before. "We hail the simple expedient of the drip- 
ping vessel as eminently calculated to induce the posses- 
sors of small outlets to beautify them with such ferns as 
require shade and moisture to go forth among the lanes 
and woods at intervals of leisure, and derive enjoyment 
from the healthy recreations that are within their reach. 
Think not to meet with the Woodsia ihensis, and W. 
hyperborca, the Polypodium arronicum of Withering, either 
in England or Ireland. In "Wales the genus is rare, even 
on Snowdon ; Dr. Richardson gathered it from a moist 
black rock nearly at the top of Clogwyn y Garnedd, facing 
north-west, and directly above the lower lake. Glyder 
Vawr (or the Hill of Tempests), and Clogwyn y Garnedd, in 
Carnarvonshire, afford isolated specimens. In Scotland it 
seems restricted to Perthshire, Ben Lawers, Forfarshire, 
and the Clova mountains. 
For the sake of travellers whose summer or autumn 
excursions may lead them to those parts, we shall mention 
that the roots are long, fibrous, and brown ; the rhizoma 
tufted, brown, slightly scaly ; the young fronds, or leaves, 
appear in May, and continue green till September or Octo- 
ber. The shape of the frond is linear, or strap-shaped 
lanceolate, or spear-shaped and pinnate, which term has 
been already explained ; the pinna? are attached by their 
stems only they are indented, but not pinnatifid. 
In the absence of specimens, we avail ourselves of New- 
man's admirable delineations of this rare fern. 
Fig. 1 represents two pinna? detached and magnified ; the 
upper shows the masses of theca? in their natural position ; 
the lower exhibits the veins, and the points of attachment 
of the thecse at their extremities, the theca? themselves being 
removed. 
