9 
upon buildings and walls, the, artificial work of man. The 
river Axe and its tributaries pass through three Counties 
and forty Parishes. Kespecting these we shall endeavour 
to point out the habitats of the rarer plants. Stiff clay soils 
and dry situations are generally unfavourable and un- 
congenial : their favourite resort is in abundant moisture 
and shade. The Fern Trees of the Tropics are found in dense 
and wet woods. Our most luxuriant specimens are where 
the sun does not scorch, and the ground is saturated with 
moisture, and the air is damp and misty. If Ferns exist at 
all in dry regions, they are so stunted and changed, that 
they could hardly be supposed to be identical with those 
that appear so rich and luxuriant. Brake and Moonwort 
are an exception to this rule. The former, however, is far 
more stately and exalted in the dense and shaded wood, than 
in the open down. 
The parishes are — ^Tn Devonshire — Axminster, Axmouth, 
Colyton, Combpyne, Cotleigh, Dalwood, Farway, Kilming- 
ton, Membury, Musbury, Northleigh, Offwell, Stockland, 
Southleigh, Seaton and Beer, TJplyme, Shute, Wid worthy, 
Tarcombe. In Dorset — Beaminster, Broadwinsor, Burstock, 
Chardstock, Charmouth, Cheddington, Hawkchurch, Lyme, 
Monkton Wylde, Mosterton, Wambrook, Wootton IPitz- 
paine. In Somerset — Buckland St. Mary, Chaffcombe, 
Chard, Combe, Crewkerne, Otterford, Seaborough, Wayford, 
Whitestaunton, Winsham. 
HISTOET OF FEENS. 
“ Non tamen ista filix nllo mansuescifc aratro.” — Pers. Sat. 4, v. 41. 
That fern however is not improved by any plough. 
Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher of the third century 
before Christ, praises their medicinal properties, and Dios- 
corides, a physician who fiourished in the reign of INero, 
and whose works were referred to as the fountain-head of all 
authority on the subject of botany and the virtues of plants 
for sixteen centuries, speaks of the Male Fern or Brake, 
(pteris) the Female Fern, (thelypteris) probably the Com- 
mon Polypody, (dryopteris) and several others. Both these 
