

















50 BRITISH FERNS 
is a fair chance that he has discovered something quite new, always, 
we may add, a possibility in this connection. We may now turn 
to the needful equipment of Ше Fern-hunter, and Ше provision 
for the preservation of his finds in a living state until he can instal 
them at home. The orthodox equipment is a strong trowel, and a 
vasculum or oblong metal box provided with a lid and means of 
suspension over the shoulders; but our experience shows that 
when clambering about rough declivities at steep angles this 
apparatus is apt to be a nuisance, and our own personal equipment 
consists merely of a ball of string, a few newspapers, a stout reliable 
hooked stick, and the inevitable trowel, most of which will go into 
one’s pockets, and thus constitute absolutely no impedimenta. 
Given a find, we extract it carefully with as much of the root as 
possible, wrap the roots in moss or grass, which can be usually 
obtained close by, and roll the straightened fronds lightly up in 
paper, secured with string. The parcel can then be either pocketed 
if small, or slung over the shoulders if large, the earliest opportunity 
being taken of giving the roots a soak in water, for if these get dry, 
it is a great check upon the plant. Ferns so treated will stand for 
a week or two without detriment to their vitality, if packed upright 
in a box with moss between them. Of course, it occasionally 
happens that the successful hunter is confronted with difficulties 
which will tax his inventive powers to overcome. One of the 
writer’s finds on Dartmoor weighed about 14 cwt., a huge mass 
of a splendidly tasselled Lasirea montana, which was obviously 
not amenable to extraction by a pocket trowel or transport in 
paper and string. A labourer and a fork and spade were ob- 
tained from a neighbouring village, but even they did not suffice, 
and the services of a man in a quarry cart had eventually to be 
enlisted to convey the mass on the first stage of its journey to 
London. On another occasion a very desirable Hartstongue was 
noticed just over the arch spanning a Devonshire stream, and only 
just within reach of the trowel lashed to the stick aforesaid. If so 
dislodged, however, it would inevitably fall into the rapid stream 
below and be lost. This problem was solved by the fortunate 
presence of an umbrella, which being opened and suspended under 
the arch by a string, eventually received the prize when dislodged. 
A second similar bridge difficulty with a variety of Polypodium 
vulgare was met differently ; the umbrella could not be used as the 
wall was sheer, but by means of a loose slip-knot of string, the 
fronds were lassoed, and when the root was dislodged, the plant 
was drawn up and bagged in the usual way. In another instance 
a finely crested Hartstongue was seen about ten feet up a high 
wall, quite out of reach, and this was got at by hoisting a village 
lad upon our shoulders and instructing him what to do. This find, 
by the way, turned out to be something new even in that protean 
species. To conclude, we cannot refrain from reverting to the 

