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THE BOOK OF 
that furthe. search is rewarded by further specimens. Very 
rarely colonies, as it were, are found, as in our own case of 
Asp. ad. nigrum caudatum, where many yards of a stone dyke 
contained no other form but hundreds of this. A most remark- 
able case was recently brought before us, where, in Cornwall, 
three distinct finds of three distinct species were found in one 
clump in a wood, a tasselled Male Fern, a forky Shield Fern, 
and a splendid bipinnate form of the common Polypody — a rare 
case indeed, and probably unique. The 
EQUIPMENT OF THE FERN HUNTER 
is of the simplest; some carry a tin vasculum, which is so far 
good that it protects the fronds from injury ; it, however, has 
the disadvantage, when one is clambering over the rough and 
precipitous ground so dear to Ferns, of swinging round and 
getting in the way, and personally we abjure anything but a 
strong trowel, a stout hooked stick, a cloth bag like a fish 
basket, which can be rolled up, a pocketful of old newspapers, 
and some string. A “find” discovered, we dig it up carefully 
by the roots, separate it from any associated common ones, 
wrap some moss or old fronds round the roots, envelop it in 
a sheet of paper, slip it into the bag, and sling this behind 
us by a string over our shoulders. At the first opportunity we 
dip the roots in water, and when we reach our temporary 
haven at the end of the day we instal it in a box with a good 
supply of fresh wet moss, and place this in a cool shady 
place. Tire Fern is then good for a fortnight or more, until 
finally installed at home. Puzzles, of course, crop up in such 
expeditions; “finds” sometimes occur in awkward places, 
are seen at the top of a high wall far out of reach, or in 
hedges where the tree roots almost require dynamite to liberate 
the Fern, or, as in one of our experiences, it may be so huge as 
to need two men and a horse and cart for dislodgment and 
conveyance, or, finally, as in the case of that beautiful Fern 
P. v. Prestoni, it may be seated so deep in a rock chink that 
the finder had to roll the rock itself across country and actually 
grow the Fern out of its hermitage at home, We, however, 
only know of one case which baffled the enthusiast, a charming 
Lady Fern, growing in a deep drain, in the mouth of which, 
at the base of a massive stone dyke, the merest tips of tire 
fronds had reached the light with the roots under the dyke 
and on the inaccessible other side of it. We nearly suffered 
such a catastrophe ourselves once, finding a beautifully crested 
L. dilatata in a close preserve bristling with threats of prose- 
cution of Fern robbers. Here, however, the Fern itself saved 
