RAMBLES IN SEARCH OF FERNS. 
27 
CHAPTER IV. 
1 But open eyes may well discern 
Samples of pretty British fern, 
Wall-rue, Spleenworts, Black Maiden-hair, 
On that old wall, if scanned with care. 
“ Then hasten, search the rocks and lanes, 
The meadows, brooks, the heather plains, 
The hedge, the dingle, copse, and all, 
But don't forget the old stone wall.” 
( On a glorious day late iu August, I found myself left to pass a 
solitary morning. Esther had gone out immediately after our early 
breakfast, without explaining what her errand might be ; and her 
invalid mother always remained in her room till the middle of the day. 
The post brought me letters, one from a friend in Edinburgh, to 
whom I had written in the heat of my fern mania, and two precious 
little ferns were inclosed. The long narrow seed masses, with covers 
plain at the edges, proved them to be Aspleniums, and with my lens 
and my book I proceeded to examine their various characteristics. 
One with very narrow fronds and distant, alternately-placed leaflets, I 
made out to be the Alternate-leaved Spleen wort (Asplenium cilterni- 
folium , Plate IV., Fig. 1) ; it had been found in rocks near Kelso. The 
other, with the fronds generally divided into three parts and then forked, 
could certainly be no other than the Forked Spleen wort ( A . septen- 
trionale, Fig. 2). According to the directions given in guide-books, my 
friend had perseveriDgly sought this fern among the rocks on Arthur’s 
Seat, and about Blackford and Braid Hills, but with no success. The 
only plants she could get a sight of were growing on the basaltic 
columns called Samson’s Ribs, at the back of Arthur’s Seat. The 
poor little fern owed its safety, no doubt, to its inaccessible position, 
c 
