294 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  24,  1896. 
that  needs  to  be  learned  and  anted  on  by  our  working  populations 
in  these  days  when  temptations  are  so  many  to  relieve  them  of 
the  results  of  their  labours. 
This  is  not  gardening.  No  ;  it  will  be  remembered  that  noting 
down  the  contents  of  gardens  was  not  in  the  contract.  A  change 
from  gardening  was  the  great  objective,  and  a  change  in  reading  as 
well  as  in  working  is  necessary  in  the  provision  of  that  essential  for 
healthy  humanity — variety.  A  little  gardening  will,  no  doubt,  fall 
from  the  pen  in  an  involuntary  sort  of  way  as  it  runs  along, 
aboat  Melville  and  Keir,  Rothesay  and  Drumlanrig  ;  but  in  the 
meantime  it  seems  inclined  to  move  in  other  directions,  and  it 
must  not  be  deprived  of  the  little  indulgence,  as  it  may  not  soon 
have  another  opportunity. 
We  are  still  at  York,  and  have  said  nothinglabout  the  Cathedral 
or  Minster.  It  is  too  majestic  to  be  described  here  ;  but  in  a  shop 
near  it  was  a  notification  of  a  change  as  great  in  the  way  of 
locomotion  as  can  well  be  imagined  —  an  ancient  coaching  bill, 
setting  out  the  times  of  starting  from  York  and  arriving  in 
London.  In  this  old-time  document  special  attention  is  drawn  to 
the  celerity  of  the  service,  for  it  is  pointed  out  that  travellers  may 
actually  (barring  accidents)  reach  the  metropolis  in  four  days  !  If 
the  compiler  of  the  bill  had  been  told  that  the  time  would  come 
when  the  distance  would  be  traversed  in  four  hours,  he  would 
sooner  have  believed  in  the  world  coming  to  an  end  in  his  lifetime. 
Bidding  good-bye  to  Mr.  Johnson,  the  ci-devant  Lincolnshire 
labourer,  who  first,  like  a  prudent  man,  insured  his  life,  and  then, 
having  an  eye  to  business,  commenced  insuring  others,  he  by  the 
force  of  his  natural  eloquence,  happy  persuasive  power,  and  per¬ 
severing  industry,  eventually  became  one  of  the  most  successful 
agents  of  one  of  the  greatest  insurance  companies  in  the  kingdom, 
and  in  this  and  other  ways  of  business,  made  his  fortune  in  time  for 
him  to  enjoy  it,  and  dispense  hospitality  to'his  friends.  Bidding  him 
good-bye  then,  and  advising  gardeners  to  insure,  we  started  for  the 
North  on  the  last  day  of  August.  W^e  could  not  travel  far  without 
observing  the  extraordinary  fulness  of  the  fields  in  grain,  herbage, 
and  roots — so  different  from  the  South,  but,  in  another  respect, 
u  ifortunate.  The  Southern  harvest,  what  little  there  was  of  it,  w? s 
safely  gathered  in — not  a  drop  of  rain  impeding  operations  ;  the 
Yorkshire  harvest,  much  fuller,  apparently  fourfold  greater,  was 
saturated  in  the  fields  by  heavy  and  continuous  rains.  Passing 
beyond  the  Wheat  zone,  large  breadths  of  Birley  and  Oats  stretched 
along  the  valleys,  while  the  hills  were,  in  very  fact,  “  with  verdure 
clad.”  The  weather  was  drier  and  the  prospect  brighter,  at  least  at 
the  moment,  and  some  fields  were  cleared  of  their  produce. 
Over  the  border  the  same  wealth  of  vegetation  was  admired 
and  bits  of  delightful  scenery  enjoyed.  Galashiels  was  reached 
and  a  halt  made,  for  what  old  gardening  friends  of  the  Thomsons, 
who  had  the  opportunity,  would  journey  to  Scotland  without 
making  a  call  at  far-famed  Clovenfords  to  see  the  kind  and 
courteous  members  of  the  family  and  the  Grapes,  of  which  a  little 
may  be  said  anon  ?  The  pen  is  tired  now,  so  is — The  Sckibe. 
ON  FERNS  AND  FERN  HUNTING. 
Botany  is  an  interesting  and  delightful  study,  but  to  most 
of  us  the  field  is  too  vast ;  one  has,  therefore,  to  be  content  to 
rtmble  over  a  limited  portion  of  it,  and  more  especially  that 
which  lies  beyond  the  cultivated  garden.  There  is  abundant  scope 
here  among  wild  flowers  and  Ferns.  The  field,  the  common,  the 
wood,  the  marsh,  the  wayside,  and  margins  of  river  and  stream 
are,  to  those  who  will  study  them,  full  of  interest  and  delight. 
Moreover,  these  charmingly  graceful,  though  flowerless,  plants. 
Ferns,  seem  instinctively  to  choose  the  moit  picturesque  and 
delightful  localities.  The  flat,  low,  eastern  coanties  —  Lincoln, 
Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Essex  —  are  singularly  destitute  of  the  Fern 
tribe,  if  one  excepts  the  ubiquitous  Bracken,  and,  in  some  shady 
woods,  the  common  Male  Fern.  The  tribe  most  abounds  in  the 
north-west  and  south-west.  In  the  moist,  warm  and  sheltered 
goyles  of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall  nearly  a  score  species  luxuriate, 
from  the  noble  Osmunda,  beneath  whose  drooping  fronds  it  is 
said  a  British  prince  once  found  shelter,  to  the  delicate  Bladder 
Fern,  Cystopteris  fragilis,  and  the  elegant  little  Spleenwort. 
Among  the  Fern  tribe,  as  with  wild  flowers,  the  commonest 
are  not  the  least  beautiful.  Which  of  them  all,  indeed,  excels  in 
beauty  of  form  and  grace  of  habit  the  humble  Bracken,  Pteris 
aquilina,  the  Fern  of  the  Eagle’s  Wing  ?  From  the  time  when 
the  fawn-coloured,  crozier-like  fronds  pierce  the  turf  in  early  May 
tintil  it  covers  the  waste  places  and  woodlands  with  a  mantle 
of  crimson  and  gold,  the  Bracken  is  always  beautiful  and  the 
sheltered  home  of  things  of  fur  and  feather.  Now  and  again,  too, 
it  provides  a  soft  couch  for  the  weary  tramp.  How  much  of  the 
beauty  of  our  autumn  hedgerows  is  due  to  the  homely  Bracken 
one  may  see  while  walking  along  a  Surrey  lane,  where  it  o’ertops 
the  tallest  twigs  of  the  Hawthorn  ?  Of  all  our  indigenous  Ferns 
the  Bracken  is  most  widely  distributed.  I  have  seen  it  near  the 
summits  of  Ben  Macdhui  and  Plylimmon  in  company  with  Orec- 
pteris,  the  Mountain  Marsh  Fern,  and  the  hardy  Blechnum  spicant. 
It  is  a  somewhat  singular  circumstance  that  the  seedling 
Bracken,  or  plant  raised  from  a  spore,  is  seldom  found.  A  friend, 
however,  discovered  one  on  Hampstead  Hea'h,  took  it  up  care¬ 
fully,  and  planted  it  in  a  pot.  The  rhizome  crept  over  the  sides 
of  the  pot  in  a  similar  way  to  the  common  Hare’s  Foot,  and 
formed  for  several  months  a  handsome  object ;  a  gardener,  in 
attempting  to  repot  it,  broke  the  rhizome,  and  the  plant  perished. 
Most  Ferns  seem  to  have  a  partiality  for  limestone.  I  have  not 
unfrequently  gathered,  or  counted  a  dozen  species  on,  or  at  the 
foot  of  a  limestone  wall,  within  4  yards.  Few,  if  any,  are  of 
more  elegant  habit  and  tender  green  than  the  Lady  Fern  (F.  foemina). 
By  the  roadside,  and  along  watercourses  in  Devonshire,  it  is 
surprisingly  luxuriant,  fronds  sometimes  reaching  a  length  of 
5  feet,  and  the  stools  or  crowns,  perhaps  a  century  old,  attaining 
the  dimensions  of  small  Tree  Ferns.  There  are,  as  is  well  known, 
several  varieties,  the  rachis  or  midrib  of  varioas  shades  of  purple 
and  green.  Perhaps  of  all  our  indigenous  Ferns  F.  foemina  has 
most  varieties.  Some  years  ago  I  found  a  beautifully  crested 
form  near  Ludlow,  Shropshire.  This  county,  and  the  neighbour¬ 
ing,  Hereford,  are  capital  hunting  grounds.  More  than  a  score 
species  and  many  varieties  may  be  found  by  diligent  search. 
The  most  itrikingly  handsome  of  our  British  Ferns  is  the 
Osmunda.  It  ia  probably  nearly  extinct  in  the  home  counties, 
though  it  is  still  to  be  found  in  Essex,  Sussex,  and  Hampshire,  and 
sparingly  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  There  are  splendid  tufts  of  it 
along  the  N.  and  S.  Teign,  where  conspicuous  notice  boards  implore 
the  visitor  to  allow  the  roots  to  remain.  A  common  habitat  only  a 
few  years  ago  was  the  cliff  from  Newlyn,  Cornwall,  to  Mousehole. 
Owing  to  the  depredations  of  greedy  visitors  scarcely  a  vestige 
remains.  A.  capilius  Veneris,  the  true  Maidenhair,  still  grows  in 
the  neighbourhood,  but  fortunately  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
rapacious  collector.  Perhaps  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the 
Lakes  of  Killarney  abound  most  with  the  Royal  Fern  ;  there  are 
acres  of  it,  the  frond*  frequently  over  6  feet  high. 
The  neighbourhood  of  Killarney  abounds  with  Ferns,  and 
among  them  i*  that  perhaps  rarest  and  most  beautiful  of  British 
species,  Trichomanes  radicins  or  Bristle  Fern.  It  is  found  chiefly 
in  the  most  picturesque  fastnesses  of  the  hills,  and  invariably 
within  reach  of  the  spray  of  a  cascade.  Its  graceful  habit  and 
plumy  fronds,  pellucid  and  glistening  with  spray,  render  it 
peculiarly  attractive,  and  it  ia  totally  distinct  from  other  species. 
Unfortunately  it  is  difficult  of  cultivation,  except  in  a  darkened 
frame  or  beneath  a  glass  shade.  One  can  scarcely  im>igine  a  plea¬ 
santer  holiday  for  the  naturalist,  botanist,  or  mere  Fern  hunter 
than  a  ramble  round  the  Lakes  of  Killarney.  Bird  life  ia 
e»pecially  abundant  in  the  beautiful  demesne  of  Lord  Kenmare, 
and  the  woods  and  margins  of  the  Lakes  abound  with  the  Arbutus 
— indigenous  here — while  there  ii  an  abundance  of  wild  flower#  and 
Ferns.  In  a  careful  search  he  would  doubtless  find  the  beautiful 
Trichomanes  and  the  Filmy  Ferns,  Hymenophyllum  tunbridgense 
and  unilaterale. 
Among  the  Ferns  that  bannt  the  cliffs  and  «ea  caves  of  Ultima 
Thule  is  the  Sea  Spleenwort,  A*plenium  marinum.  I  have  found  it 
near  the  magnificent  cliffs  of  Tol-pedn-penwith,  in  caves  whose 
sides  and  roofs  have  been  entirely  draped  with  this  pretty  Fern,  its 
cool,  dark  green,  glossy  fronds  delighting  in  the  fresh  salt-seasoned 
air.  Years  ago  there  were  at  least  a  dozen  species  of  Ferns  to  be 
found  in  Epping  Forest ;  at  the  present  time  there  are  only  a  few 
plants  of  half  as  many  species. 
It  ii  necessary  in  order  to  find  the  rarer  kinds  at  home  to  go 
further  afield  into  the  romantic  districts  of  Devonshire,  Cornwall, 
North  Wales,  the  Lake  District,  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  and 
Killarney.  T^e  neighbourhood  of  Cornwood,  near  Ivy  Bridge, 
Devon,  is  rich  in  Ferns.  Osmunda  is  plentiful,  and  beneath  the 
spray  of  a  pretty  waterfall  Hymenophyllum  flourishes.  Here  the 
Fern  hunter  might  find  employment  for  a  whole  day  or  two.  There 
are  a  few  rare  species  not  conspicuous  for  their  beauty,  however, 
which  are  only  to  be  found  in  the  wildest  and  most  inaccessible 
parts  of  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  ;  the  Woodsias,  Cystopteris 
montana,  the  Mountain  Bladder  Fern,  and  the  Holly  Fern 
(Lonchites).  I  was  delighted  to  find  the  latter  in  company  with 
the  pretty  green  Spleenwort,  Asplenium  viride,  at  one  time 
plentiful  in  North  Wales,  but  now  comparatively  rare. 
Most  of  the  British  Ferns  may  be  easily  grown  under  cover  iu 
London.  They  require  no  fire  heat,  only  moisture,  drainage,  and 
protection  from  dust  and  blacks.  Many  an  unsavoury  corner 
