44 
HARDY TERNS. 
one clay I determined to enter tliem as a free- 
booter. I was stopped by a little fellow. 
" Ye '11 nae be ganging there," be said ; it's 
the Duke's private walk." 
" But supposing I'm the Duchess," said I. 
Weel, if ye're the Duchess ye maun go," 
said the boy; and then, amazed at his own 
temerity, he ran off, leaving me to retrace my 
steps. 
On the road between Dunkeld and Aberfeldie I 
found a very beautiful variety of Athyrium Filix- 
foemina ; some of the fronds were nearly two feet 
in length, the stipes of the younger fronds were 
of a pinkish brown, and very bare ; the pinnge 
were thrice-pinnate, and the whole Fern had a 
graceful feathery look. I have since seen what I 
beheve to be the same Fern under the name of 
Filix-fcemina plumosum. I found it not far from 
the pretty waterfall, called the Bumbling Bridge, 
where troops of merry children meet you with 
baskets and pinafores full of rich dark red bil- 
berries, and in the far-off distance at eventide 
