Fern Collecting. 
9 
they will soon begin to grow vigorously, and after that 
patience is the only quality required on your part to 
ensure your proper reward. 
You will soon learn to distinguish ferns from all 
other plants when you meet with them. When you 
find a fern, take notice of the soil and situation it is 
growing in, and in attempting its cultivation imitate 
those conditions as nearly as possible. The pretty 
wall rue spleenwort loves to grow in the full sun, upon 
and amongst sandstone rocks. You will see plenty 
of it on the approaches to the Suspension Bridge at 
Clifton, and you may find the common maiden-hair 
spleenwort keeping it company if you look sharp. It 
is in the shady, dank, almost dripping hollow, or on the 
slope of a water-course, that you are most likely to 
find the lovely lady fern, the hard fern, and the royal 
osmund, yet these will sometimes make a bonny show 
upon dry banks beside a dusty highway, where, perhaps, 
for miles the common lastrea is the prevailing fern of 
the district. In Epping Forest there are thousands of 
pollard trees on the awkward stems of which are 
perched, like wreaths of honour, tufts of the common 
polypody. I used when a boy to tear them off to line 
my basket with when birdnesting, for that forest was 
my playground. If you want to see the bracken you 
need not travel far, but if you would cultivate it you 
must notice that it grows to its grandest stature on 
mellow, yellowish loam, and is rather poor and stunted 
on sand and peat, though not always so. Observe 
always how they look when they are at home, and 
thereby learn to persuade them to believe themselves 
