288 THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
has pointed out), it is so dry that they propagate in exception- 
ally-wet years only. As a result, ferns which may be destroyed 
by agricultural or building operations or dug up intentionally, 
are replaced by nature very slowly, if at all. This striking 
difference in the climates of the two counties is amply sufficient 
to account for the equally-striking difference in their respective 
fern-floras. 
Moreover, it is certain that our fern-flora of to-day, meagre 
as it 1s, 1s very much poorer, in respect of both species and 
individuals, than it was less than a century ago. The decrease 
has been very noticeable, even within my own recollection. 
Considerably less than a century ago, the Royal Fern (Osmunda 
vegalis) flourished abundantly in bogs at not a few places through- 
out Essex.2 To-day, I doubt whether even one single plant 
grows wild anywhere in the county. Or, take such species 
as the Marsh Fern (Lastrea thelypterts), the Mountain Fern 
(Lastvea oreopteris), the Herring-bone Fern (Blechnum spicant) 
and the Black Spleenwort (A sfleniuwm adiantum-nigrum). When 
Gibson wrote, sixty years ago, he was able to name a fair number 
of localities for each of these species. Yet, to-day, though 
individual plants may still linger, these are, in most cases, no 
more than a miserable remnant of those which were to be found 
then. For instance, in regard to the last-named, the Black 
Spleenwort, I can remember seeing it not uncommonly in one 
mid-Essex locality—on the bank cf a hedge beside the Parsonage 
Lane, at Broomfield.? To-day, that lane is lined by cottages 
and other buildings, including a Board School, and the plant 
has long disappeared. Without doubt, there are still local- 
ities for it In Essex: but, off-hand, I cannot name even one. 
Again, when I was a boy, single plants of the Prickly Fern 
(Polystichum angulare) were met with not uncommonly, growing 
on the banks of ditches in Broomfield, the Chignals, Roxwell, 
and throughout the district lying to the north-west of Chelmsford, 
where to-day one seldom or never sees a single plant. Even 
the common Male Fern (Lastrea filix-mas) which used to be fairly 
common in similar situations and in woods throughout the 
same district, has become very noticeably scarcer within my 
own sxecollection. 
2 See, for example, Essex NATURALIST, xix. (1921), p. 269. 
3 I have a note that, on 26 December 1876, I saw ‘‘a large quantity ” there, together with 
a few plants of Polystichum aculeatum. 
