50 
BRITISH FERNS. 
and moist, so that the rhizome may extend itself with 
freedom, it is most abundant. It has disappeared 
from many districts where it once grew, on the intro¬ 
duction of drainage ; this peculiarity will suggest the 
necessity for preventing the escape of moisture from 
its roots in cultivation. In this country its distribu- 
tion may be considered somewhat local, but it is to be 
found in most English counties, though rarely in 
Ireland and Scotland. In Wales it is not unfrequent, 
and near London it grows on Wimbledon Common 
and in Epping Forest. A botanical collector and 
enthusiast, writing from a spot in Warwickshire, 
where this fern formerly abounded, regrets its absence, 
and attributes it rather to the rapacity of other col¬ 
lectors than to the introduction of drainage and culti¬ 
vation. It should be borne in mind in gathering 
specimens for the herbarium, or in taking roots for 
cultivation under other circumstances, that in no place 
will the plant thrive so well as in its native soil, and 
that to remove the whole of a rare plant is perhaps to 
•exterminate it for ever. Notwithstanding the diffi¬ 
culties we may expect to find in growing this fern 
artificially, Mr. Sowerby assures us that he has grown 
specimens for many years in common garden loam, 
the roots covered with black peat to prevent evapora¬ 
tion, and having no more than the usual watering 
given to its neighbours. 
