RAMBLES IX SEARCH OF FERXS. 
ir 
be bought at a very high price }» I believe the rash gentleman who 
purchased mine gave five shillings for it, and there are only three 
little fronds upon it.” She took off the glass and brought the case 
close to the lamp. “There,” she said, “ you may look at it as much 
as you choose, and sketch it if you like, but I cannot cut a frond or 
part of one.” 
I examined the plant carefully, and renewed the examination by 
daylight. The pretty little fern was covered with brownish-red hairs 
— these grew chiefly on the under side of the leaflets. The seed 
masses were placed in a cover, the fringed edges of which seemed 
drawn up around them. The peculiar characteristics of the little 
fern precluded all danger of mistaking it. I made a careful sketch 
to place in my collection, until such time as I should succeed in 
procuring a natural specimen (Fig. 5). This fern, and its companion, 
the Oblong Woodsia, only frequent Alpine situations, clefts in rocks 
in Wales, and the Highlands. The Woodsia Ilvensis has been found 
in Teesdale, a valley not far from the place of my sojourn, which 
divides Yorkshire from Durham ; but for many years it has been 
sought there in vain. On laying my new group of ferns in their 
press, I found that the sheets that I had cut for the Polypodys were 
too small to accommodate the large fronds of the Prickly Shield ferns. 
Both the common and angular ones measured nearly two feet, and the 
lobed species was quite one foot long. I went to ask for some more 
newspapers, but my cousin kindly presented me with some large- 
sized botanical paper, which he had procured from the town on 
purpose for me. It was nearly as long as the packing case lid, and 
suited my large ferns admirably ; and it would just lie in the bottom 
of my packing case, when -I should make my next journey. 
My new pursuit was becoming as a congenial friend to me : 
I loved God for making the beautiful plants. I wondered at His 
gracious adaptation of them to the service and delight of man. Mar- 
vellous, that the vegetation of a past age, when man was yet the dust 
of the earth, should be stored up for his use in the deep bow r els of 
