70 
years ago, a class of people has sprung up who gain a liveli- 
hood by collecting and selling fern roots to tourists ; these 
are exposed for sale in the markets during the summer 
season, and it is pitiable to see cartloads of them torn from 
their native rocks and glens, and to think that not one root 
in a hundred will grow when carried away and planted on 
rockwork; and the few plants that do survive are but 
miserable representatives of their respective species. There 
are laws to protect the small birds from being exterminated, 
but none can be framed to protect our ferns and wild flowers. 
The only suggestions the writer could make to preserve 
them was to appeal to tourists on no account to purchase 
roots of ferns from these dealers, and not to dig up rare 
specimens when they find them, but content themselves 
with the fronds. He then enumerated the various native 
species of ferns, and showed how few of them were suitable 
for cultivation in ordinary gardens and rockeries, and that 
for such a purpose the common species were really more 
suited in every way than the rarer, being handsomer and 
more easily grown. He also strongly advocated the growth 
of varieties from spores, and spoke of the pleasure he had 
experienced in examining the extensive collection of those 
raised by E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., & c., of Highfields, near Not- 
tingham. 
Mr. Hurst mentioned that the Madeira DicJcsonia Cal - 
cita had been eradicated from its sole Spanish habitat, near 
Algeziras, by collectors. 
