64 HANDY BOOK OF 
heavy rain, of yesterday swelled many a wayside stream 
that flashed and sparkled in the sunbeams, and every blado 
of glass was surcharged with rain-drops. Light- wreathing 
mists arose from off the moor now flying up the hills 
now chasing each other across the valleys now seeming to 
open, and to present long vistas of rock and dingle, to 
which the beams of a cloudless sun imparted the magic of 
aerial tints and hues. 
Our path led across one of the wildest portions of Dart- 
moor. A tiny rill, rising in solitude and silence, had 
swelled into a stream, and the stream, as it flowed on, 
received the contributions of other streams, which at length 
in their congregated might became powerful and rapid. 
Athwart this stream stretched one of those primitive bridges 
which our rnde forefathers had most probably erected ; 
the racing torrent rushed impetuously beneath, bounding 
over vast masses of stone, and falling in foaming sheets oC 
dazzling whiteness. But though old and lichen-dotted, 
and grey with age, that same old bridge was beloved of 
flowers; the blue forget-me-not, the harebell, the golden 
saxifrage, with red crane-bills, and yellow snapdragons, 
looked down in .beautiful companionship on the hurrying 
waters. Among these were several small ferns of con- 
siderable beauty the Brittle-fern especially, which is fond 
of bridges, and establishes itself in the interstices of their 
stones. This plant, equally elegant and fragile, is much 
sought after ; the genus to which it belongs was established 
by Bernhardi, who, having rejected the previous names of 
Cystea, Polypodium, Aspidium, Cyclopteris, gave it that of 
Cystopterisfragilis, or Brittle-fern. 
On referring to Newman's " History of British Ferns," 
we observed that the name thus given appears to have been 
adopted by nearly all subsequent botanists that the genus 
contains a limited number of species, which, although of 
wide dispersion, are restricted mostly to old walls and 
buildings, or dry stony places ; it may be that a torrent 
