*7 O 
/ - 
European Ferns. 
recorded are counties which are but poorly represented in botanical literature. Mr. Watson, 
speaking of its distribution in Britain, says: “Taking both horizontal and vertical range into 
account, this is perhaps the most widely distributed of all our ferns, Lastrea dilatata being 
its nearest ally or rival in this respect.” 
In spite of this wide distribution we should hardly reckon the Blechnum as one of our 
commonest ferns. It is somewhat particular as to its place of growth, and is never found at any 
great distance from water. It varies a good deal in size, attaining its largest dimensions on 
sheltered banks in moist woods where there is a stagnant pool, or where a tiny brooklet winds 
its way among the trees. Here the Hard Fern grows most luxuriantly, forming dense tufts, 
the fertile fronds rising gracefully above the more robust barren ones, forming a beautiful 
object. In more exposed localities it is a much smaller plant — often, indeed, not exceeding in 
size the figure given in our plate, although that is only about half the average size of the 
fern. It is a conspicuous object upon the countless acres of peat-bog which extend with 
intervals throughout the south and west of Ireland — conspicuous, not indeed on account of 
its size, but from its colour. The barren fronds in this exposed situation are of a peculiar 
yellow-green, which it would puzzle even an artist of the school now most in vogue to render 
at all accurately. This, no doubt, is partly owing to the surroundings— the dull herbage, and 
the rich deep brown of the moorland bog, where this has been laid bare in the preparation of 
“turf;” and the brilliant white tassels of the cotton-grass, in numbers such as to produce from 
a distance the effect of a drift of newly-fallen snow.* But whatever may be the cause, the 
bright fronds of the Blechnum are among the most conspicuous objects on an Irish bog in 
the early summer-time — a time when, in Ireland, the wild flowers seem to have forgotten their 
proper dates for blossoming, and get mixed up in an extraordinary fashion. As an instance of 
this we may mention that we recently saw the primrose and fox-glove in blossom together on the 
same hedgebank in many parts of the County Waterford — the former, indeed, having a little passed 
the period of full bloom, while the latter had not yet attained it ; but both being sufficiently 
well represented to attract attention. Perhaps the fairies have something to do with the 
jumble ; for, although philologists do their best to prevent our believing that the name fox- 
glove should be written folk' s-glove, there is no doubt but that in Ireland fox-gloves and 
fairies have had a good deal to do with each other ; for not only is the plant called fairy- 
cap, fairy-bell, fairy-glove, and fairy-weed, but it is also named lusmore , the “great or important 
herb,” owing its importance to the use made of it by the “ good people,” who, when dis- 
turbed in their revels by the approach of a human foot, take refuge in the bells, and 
remain concealed until the danger is past. The Blechnum extends throughout Ireland, in 
boggy and heathy places, except upon pure limestone. Although the Bracken may have 
been the fern more especially intended by Cowper when he wrote the following lines, the 
species now under consideration may have been also present to his mind when he spoke of — 
“ The common overgrown with fern , and rough 
With prickly gorse that, shapeless and deformed 
And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom, 
And decks itself with ornaments of gold.” 
The uses of the Hard Fern may be almost expressed by a cipher, although in the “ good 
old times,” when no plant was considered entirely destitute of “ vertues,” it was not regarded 
* This appearance of the cotton-grass explains a simile used by Ossian : 
“Her bosom was whiter than the down of canna." 
Cannach or canna-down is the Gaelic name for the cotton-grass, and is still in use in some parts of Scotland. 
