RAMBLES IN SEARCH OF FERNS. 
9 
claimed for it a place in that group. Referring to my text-book, I 
found that the Alpine Polypody (P. Alpestris , Fig. 5) is of a lance- 
like form, the pinna) gradually elongating from the top to the middle 
of the frond, and then decreasing again. This was just the case in the 
fern I held in my hand, and it was further described as bearing a most 
-striking resemblance to the Lady fern, which might account for 
Esther imagining it to be so common. 
“ This one,” my cousin continued, “ she describes as growing on all 
the old walls, and among the rocks in Somersetshire, vying with the 
mistletoe in abundance, though not, like it, avoiding Devonshire. I 
like it for being such a compact little plant, and its brown felt lining 
. is very curious.” 
“ It answers to the description of the Scaly Spleen wort,” I said 
( Ceterach officinarum , Fig. 6, and B), “ and my book places it in the 
Polypody group. There are ragged morsels hanging about the seed 
masses certainly, but th6y very likely belong to the scales which form 
your ‘ brown felt.’ It is a pretty though grave-looking fern, and I 
am very glad of a specimen of it.” Without any hope of a favourable 
answer, I asked Esther if she knew the Jersey fern. 
“ Oh, yes,” she said ; “ Miss Hughes brought me a plant from 
Jersey, and I have it under a glass in the drawing-room.” 
It was so, indeed. The little oval-shaped fronds, -with their cut 
and toothed lobes and naked seed masses, entirely answered the 
description of the Gyrnnogramma leptophylla (Fig. 7). Some of 
the fronds were without seed, two only had the spore masses upon 
them, and these were more erect than the others, and their lobes 
narrower. Esther kindly gave me a little frond, and I retired to my 
own room to constitute a press of old newspapers, a box lid, and 
heavy stones, in which to preserve specimens of my new study. 
“ How exquisite is the beauty of these plants,” I thought, as I 
carefully placed them in the press. The freshness and varied shade of 
their hues, the grace and lightness of their form, the fitness of their 
structure for the dwelling to which they are destined — this firm com- 
