8 
E AMBLES IN SEARCH OF FERNS. 
interrupted Esther. “ I have always felt that it must be a relation of 
the one you call the Oak fern.” 
She hastened to bring it. The triangular form of the frond, and 
the forward bend of the two lower branches, or pinnae, enabled me to 
identify this with the Beech fern ( Polypodium phegopteris, Fig. 3), 
and the hairs upon the pinnae confirmed my judgment. 
“ I have another in my fernery,” she said, “ which bears a still 
closer resemblance to the Oak fern. It is of a stiffer figure, its stem is 
green, and it has a powdery appearance. I found it in a wood some 
miles higher up the dale. My companion wanted to climb the hill to 
see the view over the other dales, but I was tired and declined wan- 
dering further. So he left me in the wood, giving me his stick by way 
of hostage, and with it I dug up the fern in question. I rambled up 
and down the wood, and when he called to me I quickly joined him ; 
but, alas ! I had lost the stick. It is a queer rocky, entangled wood, 
and, though I have sought again and again for the stick, and the 
remainder of the fern, I have never been able to find them. I have 
not known you long enough to tell you the gentlemans name ; but 
Marian is of opinion that he went back and got his stick, and only kept 
me in ignorance to tease me.” (P. calcareum , Fig. 4.) 
We repaired to the fernery. The powdery appearance was caused 
by glands scattered all over the frond ; this, and its general aspect, 
showed it to be the Limestone Polypody. No locality could be more 
favourable to its growth than these woods, where the immense 
boulders of limestone greeting us at every step left no room to doubt 
the nature of the rock. Esther had run into the house while I was 
examining her fernery, and she returned with some dried fronds in 
her hand. 
“ Marian sent me this from Shropshire, where she lias been staying 
lately. She said it looked so like a fern that grows here abundantly 
that I did not believe her assertion that it is a rarity. ” 
I examined the frond carefully with my lens : the form was very 
different to those of the other Polypodys, but the naked seed masses 
