38 
RAMBLES IX SEARCH OF FERXS. 
A path appearing at the other side of the brook, leading up the 
steep wood, Esther graciously permitted that we should take it. The 
trees here were very thick, in their shade the various sorts of Prickly 
Shield ferns were growing, and as we ascended we found that the 
bright strap-shaped fronds of the Hart’s Tongue were mingling with 
them. I gathered some specimens, delighting in the contrast of form 
and shade presented by the group, the feathery pinnae of the one 
showing their exquisite delicacy by the solid glossy myrtle-green frond 
of the Scolopendrium vulgare (Fig. 5). I was ready for this fern in 
the order of my collection, so I dutifully proceeded to expound its 
characteristics to my lively pupil. 
“ You see the seed masses are long and narrow, following the 
course of the side veins, and the covering splits up the middle.” 
“ Oh, yes, I see all that ; but there’s no use racking one’s brains 
about the peculiarities of the Hart’s Tongue. Every child that has 
once had it pointed out will be sure to know it again, whether there 
be any seed masses and covers, &c., or not. I have a plant of the 
curled Hart’s Tongue in my fernery — the frond is quite frilled on each 
side, and we sometimes find them in the woods with the ends 
forked.” 
“ Both these varieties are mentioned in this book, but the latter is 
not permanent. One year the ends will come forked, and the next 
they will be entire. The common Hart’s Tongue used to be valued as 
a medicine in England, and is still so in France and Scotland. The 
Male fern, too, and the Brake, were once used medicinally. In 
tropical climates the pith of ferns is a general article of food, and 
there is scarcely one well-defined group which does not boast an edible 
species.” 
As we thus conversed, we reached the top of the wood, and climbing 
over a wall, found ourselves in a good foot-path. Following this, and 
passing through gaps in the walls — called stiles in that county, and 
certainly invented before crinoline — we entered a little copse bordering 
on my cousin’s grounds. Here, under the bircli-trees, grew ferns of 
