h i!
from a more laborious, to embrace for a brief period
a more delightful study: I am not the first since
Hylas who has loitered in the path of duty, and
amused himself with the flowers by the way.
It was while wandering among the Welsh mountains,
in the autumn of 1837, that I first felt any
desire to know the names of Ferns. I had often
observed the variety that half covered some of those
bleak and desolate regions, where fern is cut, dried,
and housed as the only litter that can be obtained for
horses; but now, for the first time, I gathered
hundreds of fronds, and employed the evenings in
arranging them into supposed species. I found that
three species were abundant in the most dreary and
exposed Avilds; but where some rill tumbled over a
precipitous bank, or a ledge of rocks, keeping the
surface in a state of perpetual moisture, half a score
others were sure to be growing: in the chasm at
Ponterwyd I think I counted fourteen distinct
kinds.
Of every species I could obtain, not only the fronds
but the roots were carefully conveyed home, and,
assisted by Withering and Smith, I set to work,
expecting to name them without difficulty; but how
shall I express my astonishment, when, after a
minute and really attentive investigation, I could
only be certain of two species—Pteris aquilina and
Polypodium vulgare! I soon afterwards availed myself
of the assistance of my botanical friends, and
obtained names for all my Ferns. Since then I have
, I i
paid some attention to the specific characters, as laid
down by our best Authors, and I am inclined to
doubt whether those most distinctive have been
employed. It appears that the manner in which
a frond is cut or divided, constitutes almost the sole
ground of specific distinction. Now, we find a great
number of specimens in a state of semi-cultivation,
i. e. partaking more or less of the influence of the
spade, or plough and harrow, and nourished by an almost
infinite variety of soils and manures; and we also
find amongst such specimens as great a variety of cutting,
as we do in the colours of domesticated animals.
I think no botanist, who allows his memory to turn to
the varieties he has observed of Lastrsea dilatata and
Polystichum aculeatum, will for a moment deny this;
and yet what botanist has ever presumed to treat of
the cutting of the frond in Ferns as of any other
than the highest importance ? I entertain a different
opinion. I think that mere cutting of frond is of no
more value than colour in fowls or cows, and therefore
should not be used as the leading character
of a species; to distinguish which, I would look for
less fickle characters in the figure, position, and
covering of the masses of seed, in the habit of the
rhizoma, and in the general outline of the frond.
During the summers of 1837-8-9, having many
opportunities of obtaining roots of Ferns, I planted
them with care, for the purpose of obtaining a more
correct knowledge of the variations to which they
were subject; and as 1 have heard a great deal of
b
mum