RAMBLES IN SEARCH OF FERNS. 
29 
leaflets are broader and the stems less wiry (/l. marinum , Fig. 4) ; — the 
Lance-shaped Spleenwort, — no, that is a Cornish fern, tri-pinnate, 
and delicately cut (A. lanceolatum , Fig. 5). I resolutely set my mind 
on what was within my reach, checking the longing for these rare 
and beautiful ferns, and carefully conning the descriptions of the 
Black-stalked and Black Maiden-hair species ; after which I set forth 
on my expedition with a hopeful heart. 
The ride up that beautiful valley was enjoyable in the extreme. 
The hills on the opposite side were covered with purple ling, across 
which the cloud-shadows flitted with gliding motion. Keeping in a 
line with the river, we passed noisy brooks whose waters were stained 
deep-brown by the peat through which they had flowed, or were 
tinted with the paler hue of the limestone in the lead mines, where 
they had already performed the important duty of washing the ore. 
My kind cousin told me to call a halt whenever I wished to pluck any- 
thing : the ponies, he said, would stop anywhere, and for any given 
time. We had passed through two villages, and had reached a 
narrower part of the valley, when I espied an old wall answering to 
the description which Esther had given me. In a moment I had 
jumped off my pony. My cousin smiled, and offered me his knife to 
assist in extracting my treasures from their stony homes. Some fine 
fronds of a beautiful dark green colour, -with alternate pinnae, and 
deeply cut pinnules, were already in my hands. The frond was broad 
at the base, but tapered off very elegantly, forming the figure of an 
acute triangle. It only needed the long seed masses at the back 
to assure me that this was the Black Maiden -hair Spleenwort (.4s- 
plenium adiantum-nigrum , Fig. 6). I had seen the fern before, both 
in Kent and Wiltshire, where it is very abundant, and its form was 
familiar to me. By its side grew a smaller fern, with purple-brown 
stalks and oval leaflets ; its exceedingly neat appearance at once 
recalled to my mind a drawing in Esther’s book of the Black-stalker 
Spleenwort, and I felt certain that this was the plant, the linead 
seed-masses confirming my opinion (fit. trichomanes , Fig. 7). 
