8 HARDY FERNS. 
bears a look of learning about it ; it reminds me 
that at this time I invested half a guinea (its then 
price) in Moore's Popular History of British 
Ferns/' and that it has been quite worth its cost 
to me. In the local distribution of Asplenium 
marinum I found mentioned, Cliffs between 
Tenby and Saunder's Foot." I tremble when I 
think of those cliffs. Armed with a bamboo 15 
feet long, with a knife tied on the end, I sallied 
forth one day in search. By using the utmost 
dexterity the bamboo was carried safely over the 
ferry; but the land passage was not so easily 
accomplished, the retreating tide le^ng, not sand 
or shingle, but huge boulders of slimy stones and 
rock, covered with various Algae, each more inimi- 
cal to walking than the last, while little pools of 
water with tiny crabs in them, seemed lying in wait 
at every step. I measured the bamboo with my 
eye, and grasped it fairly in the middle, but now 
its head would entangle itself in the seaweed ahead, 
its poor body starting up like an overstrained bow, 
threatening to precipitate me backwards ; and now 
