3 . 
THE LADY FERN. 
A thyrium filix-fcemina. 
Plate 3, Fig. 1, Page 199. 
‘ Not by burn, in wood, or dale, 
Grows anything so fair 
As the plumy crests of emerald pale 
That wave in the wind, or sough in the gale, 
Of the Lady Fern, when the sunbeams turn 
To gold her delicate hair.’ 
Poets may fairly claim the right to describe the Lady Fern ; 
for this beautiful plant is unquestionably the fairest and 
most delicately graceful of ferny forms, whether large or 
small. Those who would see this charming member of the 
Fern family must — 
‘ Hie to haunts right seldom seen, 
Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green, 
Over bank and over brae 
Hie away, hie away.’ 
They must go — 
‘ Where the copsewood is the greenest, 
Where the fountains glisten sheenest, 
Where the morning dew lies longest,’ 
for — 
‘ There the Lady Fern grows strongest,’ 
arching outwards its delicate fronds, whose feathery tips bend 
gracefully downwards, as if to return to the earth or stream 
below, with grateful acknowledgments, the silvery dew-drops 
