28 
RAMBLES IN SEARCH OF FERNS. 
for Edinburgh nurserymen have appropriated all within their reach, 
so that the dainty plant is nearly exterminated in that neighbourhood. 
After seeking it in vain, my friend was obliged to have recourse to 
these said nurserymen for a specimen to send to me. After duly 
considering my Scotch treasures, I betook myself to Esther s house 
collection. There was one in the case which, by the elongated seed 
masses, I recognised to be a Spleenwort. The largest of the fronds 
might be three inches high, with broad leaflets regularly indented, and 
placed alternately up the stalk, which was of a dark brown colour. 
This, I decided, must be the Rock Spleenwort (A. fontanum, Fig. 3) ; 
my book gave the Highlands and Matlock as its homes. I made a 
careful sketch of the plant, and was thus engaged when Esther 
returned. 
“ You are surely not taking specimens for your collection, off my 
dainty pets ? ” she exclaimed. 
“ No,” I answered meekly, “ I am only making a drawing of the 
Rock Spleenwort. This is the next group we have to study, and I 
don’t know whether any of these small ferns are found here. The 
characteristic of the family is, that the seed masses are placed in 
thicker or thinner lines, the cover opening towards the middle vein.” 
“ We are going an excursion,” she replied, putting my pencils 
together for me. “ I have been to get ponies, and papa will escort 
us. There is a beautiful waterfall ten miles higher up the valley, and 
there are nice little ferns growing out of the rock there, to say 
nothing of a dear old wall which we shall pass en route , where pretty 
little tufts of several kinds of fern are springing : in one or other of 
these places we shall surely find some treasures. Make haste and get 
ready while I cut some sandwiches to take with us. You deserve the 
treac for contenting yourself with taking portraits of my ferns.” 
I made all the haste possible, and was ready a quarter of an hour 
before the ponies arrived. I took up my book to see what I should be 
likely to find. Sea Spleenwort, — no, that only grew within reach of 
the spray of the sea ; it resembles the common Polypody, only the 
