76 HARDY FERNS. 
into the solitary grandeur wliicli leaves Glencoe 
unsurpassed by any other scene in Britain. 
I was not very successful in my Fern hunts in 
North Devon. I found a small plant of Adiantum 
capillus-Veneris at Combe Martin, and I saw some 
more, but it was too high for me to reach. The 
little bay is worth a visit on its own account. And 
as I sat to rest on a rock above the sea, the voices 
of children, playing with the boats and lobster 
baskets below, came round me like music, tempt- 
ing me to descend and survey nearer a picture 
superior to any even in Collins's happiest style. 
A stranger was then a stranger at Combe 
Martin, and the bright-cheeked urchins left their 
play, and came running bare-legged out of the 
water to gaze. " Did I want Ferns ? " Presently 
the happy group were tumbling up the rock I had 
looked at with such timid eyes ; but children's 
hands are destructive implements, and fronds 
without roots were the only result of the scramble. 
I made another attempt to reach A. capillus- 
Veneris at Ilfracombe, taking with me a lad who 
