4 HARDY FERNS. 
patient sufferer at rest for ever. The Welsh 
poor are like none other ; I have wandered 
amongst many people, been greeted as a friend by 
many, but never so gratefully, so gracefully as in 
the lowly cottages of Wales. 
My first Oreopteris was found in a wild mountain 
spot a few miles from Chepstow. I went in search 
of it with a frond from a true plant in my hand. 
I remember the search as if it were but yesterday 
— how gallantly I plunged into the Devil's Punch- 
bowl, where, I was told, the Oreopteris drank the 
dews of heaven ; how diligently I crushed every 
Fern I found there, till the sweet lemon scent that 
escaped told me my search was over, and that the 
frond in my hand, with its tidy rows of spore-cases, 
guarding the leaflets like rows of little soldiers, 
and its bleached-looking stalk, was my favourite 
Oreopteris. There are many common Ferns to be 
found about Chepstow and the beautiful banks of 
the Wye. I found the Ceterach, Asplenium 
trichomanes, divided forms of Hart's-tongue, &c. ; 
and I also found Tintern Abbey, that most perfect 
