FERNS AND PERN-HUNTING. 
11 
a mass of common ones, thougli, on the other hand, some of 
the grandest finds have been found standing out as con- 
spicuously as possible even in much-frequented places. It 
is, indeed, astonishing what blindness in this respect exists 
among the rural classes, and especially in the ferniest dis- 
tricts; many of the country folk, it will be found on inquiry, 
are hardly aware there is more than one species, and the 
hunter is frequently directed to a fine hunting-ground, only 
to find a heath covered with Bracken. Be it, however, 
remarked, a apropos of the Bracken {Pteris aquilina) that this 
is by no means to be despised by a beginner, since nearly 
every common where it grows freely will yield marked 
variations of form, frequently very distinct indeed. There is, 
however, one drawback to the pleasure of hunting the Bracken, 
since, should the ardent student find something really good, 
he will probably have to content himself with a frond only, 
as it rarely survives removal, except in winter, when dormant, 
and, indeed, it usually defies all effort to get a root, the root 
proper burrowing several feet deep in the ground. 
This difficulty of acquisition is also experienced in other 
ways, and the hunter’s powers of contrivance are sometimes 
put to very severe tests. A good thing, for instance, may be 
detected on the top of a high wall, or on the face of an 
inaccessible cliff. More tantalising yet, it may be well within 
reach, and yet so firmly anchored in some deep chink in a 
rock or wall as to need blasting-powder to get it out. It is 
recorded of one of the finest forms of Polypodium (P. 
vulgare) that the finder detected it in a very small state 
in a chink of a granite rock, whence it could not be 
removed; the rock weighed some hundredweights, but for- 
tunately was loose. The finder rolled the rock some miles 
across country, got it home, and eventually induced the plant, 
which has a creeping root, to grow out of the chink, and 
permit itself to be multiplied. That form is now in every 
good collection. 
The possibility of lighting upon varieties seems to be 
general wherever the normal forms grow plentifully ; but 
there are localities which seem subject to some subtle influence. 
