THE ROYAL FERN. 
perhaps, serve to recall similar scenes to the 
minds of our readers. 
We had started from Totnes to search, on the 
borders of Dartmoor, for some specimens of the 
Royal Fern, taking the precaution to provide 
ourselves with the necessary digging implements. 
Away we drove for seven miles amidst ever- 
varying landscapes, by copse, hedgerow, stream, 
and meadow ; now climbing the upland road ; 
now— arrived on the upland crest — catching a 
momentary glimpse of the wide landscape, spread, 
in its mingled loveliness, over many a long mile; 
now passing down a steep declivity, under the 
darkening shadow of overhanging woods. Still 
descending, on we went. Now we crossed the 
glancing waters of the winding Dart; and now, 
again ascending and descending upland after 
upland, we arrived at length at a point of our 
road vrithin a few hundred yards of our destination. 
Then w T e turned round to the right, and before 
descending a carriage road just wide enough to 
admit our barouche, we paused a moment, spell- 
bound by the transcendent loveliness of the 
scene. A valley of woods of varying hues of 
255 
