XX 
PREFACE. 
its dwarf growth and laminar enlargement. When the same 
Fern occurs on comparatively dry soil, as in Wootton Park, 
Staffordshire, its stature is increased and its fronds less 
compact. 
The species recently observed in Derbyshire are twenty- 
four, all of which are figured in this volume : there are a 
few which might have been looked for, especially in the 
more elevated parts of the county, and which may even 
yet reward the exact scrutiny of persevering search. Such 
are Hymenophyllum — H. Tonbridgense* (fig. 14) and II. 
fern-treasures. The lover of insects and birds, and the lover 
of landscape also, must cast many a fond regret over scenes 
once rife with natural beauty and interest ; but now modern- 
ized into arable or grazing land, and made tributary to the 
* “ On the hills, from Macclesfield to Buxton, on mossy rocks.” Mr. Brad- 
bury, in Botanist’s Guide. 
t H. Wilsoni is in Dr. Garner’s List of Staffordshire Plants, as occurring at 
Gradbich, near Flash, within a few miles of Buxton. 
X Chinley Hills, near Chapel-en-le-Frith, are given in the “Botanical 
Guide,” as a locality of Cryptogramma crispa. The plant occurs in similar 
situations in Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. Its English name, 
“ Parsley Fern,” correctly describes the appearance of the species. 
many a native plant, and 
Fig. 14. 
Wilsoni f — our Filmy Ferns, 
which creep over the surface of 
wet and porous rocks, resemb- 
ling Jungermannias, — Crypto- 
gramma crispa. and Asplenium 
germanicum, septentrionale, and 
lanceolatum ; Polypodium The- 
lypteris also, and Lastrea rigida, 
may have escaped observation.^ 
But it is more probable that the 
inroads of improvement in agri- 
culture, the enclosure of wilds, 
and the opening of all accessible 
places to the greedy bite of the 
ox and sheep, have exterminated 
have limited the number of our 
