THE LADY FERN. 17
sheltered places. Sometimes it is found in more open as well as in
rocky situations, though generally where it is well supplied with
moisture; hut warm moist woods and damp hedge-row banks are its
favourite localities, a fact which Scott thus happily expresses
“ m i e r e th e copse wood is th e gi-eenest,
tv iie te th e fountain glistens sheenest,
Whore th e morning dew lies longest,
There th e Lady Fern g iw s strongest.”
It IS when growing in such situations, that it most fully supports
the claim of supremacy in beauty over all the other native species,
which is made in its behalf. “ Dull indeed,” Mr. Newman very
justly remarks, “must be the perception, and cold the heart, that
fails to appreciate its excessive loveliness ; ” and Mr. Edwin Lees,
in his Botanioal Looker-out, has some lines which claim for this
plant a position, which few if any will dispute
“ When in splendour and beauty all Nature is crown’d,
The Fern is seen curling h alf h id in th e gi'ound,
B u t of all th e green brackens th a t rise by th e hurtl,
Commend me alone to th e sweet Lady Fern.
“ folypodium indented stands stiff on th e rock,
With his sori exposed to th e tempest’s rough shock ;
On th e tride chilly hea th Aquilina stands stern,
Not once to he named with th e sweet Lady Fern.
“ Filix-mas in a circle Hfts up his green fronds,
And th e Heath Fern delights by th e bogs and th e ponds ;
Through th e ir shadowy tu fts though with pleasure I turn,
The palm must stiU rest with th e fair Lady Fern.
“ By th e fountain I see her ju s t spring into sight,
H e r texture as frail as though shivering with f r ig h t;
To th e water she shrinks—I can scarcely discern
In th e deep humid shadows th e soft Lady Fern.
‘ ‘ Where th e water is pouring for ever she sits,
And beside h e r th e Ouzel, th e Kingfisher flits ;
There, supreme in h e r beauty, beside th e full um,
In th e shade of th e rock stands th e taU Lady Fern.
“ Noon b ums up th e m o u n ta in ; h u t here by th e fall
The Lady Fern flourishes graceful and tall.
Hours speed as thoughts rise, without any concern.
And float like th e spray gliding past th e green F ern .”
The plant is common all over England, and abundant, though
perhaps less so, in Scotland and Wales, whilst in Ireland it is of
very frequent occurrence, and the Northern, Western, and Channel
Islands all produce it. In elevation its range extends from the coast
level to an altitude of about 3000 feet, in tbe Highlands of Scotland.
It is an exceedingly variable species, but tbe common forms,
sucli as molle, incisum, and rhæticum, with tbe intermediate states, are
widely dispersed and sufficiently frequent to lead to tbe conviction
that they arc general in their occurrence. Though assuming so
many forms, we believe the species to be by no means fickle ; for,
most of the forms which have boon introduood to cultivation, and
they are not a few, are quite constant. The variety rhæticum, which
occurs all over Great Britain and Ireland, and is found in its oharao-
toristic form in . more or less exposed boggy situations, is, perhaps,
the one most liable to change when submitted to opposite influences,
but even this is generally distinguishable from tbe form called
incisum, to which it approaches under the influence of shade and
shelter. The singular monstrous forms in which the Lady Fern
masquerades, are remarkable for their elegance as well as for their
permanence, and are valuable on account of the variety they afford
as cultivated plants. The following is a sketch of its distribution ;—
Peninsula.—Cornwall : Travenna, &c. Devonshire : ILfracombe,
various forms, itep. J.3I. Chanter; Salterton ; Dartmoor [molle), Bev.
C. Trelawny ; Marwood [molle, trifidmn), Rev. F. Mules ; Barnstaple
[trifidum), C. Jackson; Exeter [trifldum), B. J. Gray. Somersetshire :
Bristol; Nettlecombe; Inglislicombe Wood [trifidum), R. Withers.
Channel.—Isle of Wight. Hampshire ; Basingstoke [trifidmn),
F. Y. Brocas ; Mapledurham, near Petersfield, J. Goodyer, 1633.
Dorsetshire. Wiltshire : Alderbury Common, Salisbury [trifidum,
molle), W. Moore. Sussex: near Tunbridge Wells ; Tilgate Forest,
and elsewhere.
Thames.—Hertfordshire. Middlesex. Kent; Tunbridge Wells
[molle), Mrs. Delves; [trifidum), Miss Bower. Surrey: Portnall Park,
Yirginia Water; Bagsbot [molle), P. F. Keir ; Shirley; Mayford
[molle, trifidum) ; Gomshall, and other parts. Berkshire : Windsor
Park. Buckinghamshire : Black Park. Oxfordshire. Essex.
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