41 
Plate II, fig. 10. 
“ Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild, 
O’er all the deep green earth, beyond the power 
Of botanists to number up their tribes : 
Whether he steals along the lonely dale 
In silent search, or through the forest, rank 
With what the dull incurious weeds account, 
Burst his blind way or climbs the mountain rock, 
Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow.” — Thomson. 
4. Hay-scented Fern. Lastrea fceniseciL Dr. Solander, 
the celebrated Botanist who accompanied Captain Cook in 
his first voyage, left behind him a dried specimen of this 
plant which is in the Banksian Herbarium. He it was who 
saved a large party from destruction by cautioning them 
against sleeping, when they were ascending the heights and 
colder regions of the mountains of Terra del Fuego. He 
too proved how much easier it is to give advice than to 
practise it, as he was with difficulty kept awake during that 
perilous expedition. His name for the plant was Polypo- 
dium semulum. It was only recently that we discovered 
this and the next species, the Spinous Fern, (Lastrea spinu- 
losa) growing in this locality. A ramble in the North 
of Devon, where these plants were known to* grow, led us 
to pay more particular attention to some distinctive marks, 
and the discovery of one of these at a distance was the 
means of our lighting on them almost close to our own doors. 
Thus many travel into distant lands to behold beautiful and 
romantic scenery, and when they return home perceive that 
that which they have gone so far to see is far exceeded by 
the hills and dales and purling brooks and winding streams, 
which glide throu'gh the lovely valleys of Devonshire. 
The frond of this Fern is decidedly triangular, and difiers 
from the preceding species, the dark-scaled Fern, in these 
respects. The dark-scaled Fern has always except in stunted 
specimens the lowest branches (pinnse) shorter than two or 
three above it. The leaflets bend downwards, and the scales 
in the lower part of the stalk have a dark centre. In this 
plant the lowest branches are the longest, and hence it is 
triangular. The leaflets at the edges curl upwards and 
their middle appears hollow. The scales are of the same 
