A PARADISE OF FERNS. 
2 7 
yet leathery texture of the fronds of the Harts- 
tongue, with their deep and shining green colour, 
make them look exquisitely cool and refreshing, 
rising up out of the dark hedge-bank as they do in 
thick and clustering tufts — sometimes almost erect, 
at other times gracefully bending backwards their 
shining leathery tips. Underneath the curling 
tongue-shaped fronds, lie the curious rows of seeds 
(spores), whose rich reddish-brown colour beauti- 
fully contrasts with the deep shining green of the 
frond. 
The Hartstongue is a bold free plant. You will 
find it growing almost everywhere in Devonshire : 
on the tops and at the sides of walls; hanging from 
old ruins ; growing out from the sides of cliffs and 
deserted quarries; dropping down its long green 
fronds into the cool and limpid water of road-side 
wells hewn out of the rock : often exposed to the full 
blaze of the sun, but always in such cases dwindled 
down to a tiny size. The Hartstongue is to be 
found in almost every conceivable form, from a tiny 
thing of half an inch in length, when growing on a 
bare dry wall, to a plant which is one rich thick 
