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upper lobes of the frond, golden when young, and orange-coloured later on-will assist identification. Then its creeping, half-concealed rhizomas, or surface roots, will help to make it known. It loves the leafmould which collects in the crannies in which its roots are snugly ensconced, and in my garden I selected shallow holes in the higher, half shady, half sunny parts of my rock-work, in which to place my Polypodies, carefully pressing in the branching rhizomas, the 'many feet,' of the plant, with the depending rootlets, upon shallow beds of leaf-mould, so that each specimen would nearly fill the chosen cranny-of course covering the rootlets and partly covering the rhizomas. always found it desirable to choose hollows in the rockwork for my Common Polypodies, with small crevices in their sides and bottoms, so that the fibrous rootlets might find their way into them as time went on. But I did not forget to secure the plants with abundance of soil adhering to the masses of their rootlets. These rootlets, ordinarily, under congenial conditions of growth, become, in the fork of some hedge-bank treetrunk or shrub, a compact mass-roots and leafmould being oftentimes a foot square. Occasionally the rootlets may be found intertwined with pieces of decayed wood, or attached by the adhesion of the smallest fibres of the root-mass to pieces of stone when the

ferns are growing in wild, rocky habitats. In such cases I removed the whole mass so as to avoid any unnecessary disturbance of the elaborate growth which had been the work of a long period of time. By these means I was assured that the plants would thrive, and would not at once begin to dwindle in size, as is commonly the case when the specimens are roughly removed from the places of their growth, and a large quantity of the root-fibre is left behind. The Common Polypody grows by the elongation of its rhizomas, which, as they travel about, give out from below fibrous rootlets, that penetrate the crevices adjacent to them, and thus serve to hold the rhizomas to the soil, or rocky surface over which they creep, and at the same time to promote the firmer establishment of the entire plant. Whilst the Bracken is deciduous, and the Male Fern is ordinarily so, the Common Polypody, when sheltered, is an evergreen, and thus the old fronds will oftentimes remain on the rhizomas during the winter, and until the new ones begin to unroll in the succeeding spring. It is a most accommodating plant as to the situation in which it grows, for it will be content with a dry position on the side of a wall or rock, producing, however, in such a place, tiny fronds of only an inch or two in length; but on the tops of old walls where much soil has accumulated, or in the moist

forks of trees where there have been similar accretions of leaf-mould, it will attain a length-for stem and leafy part of frond-of twelve and eighteen inches; and in the dankest part of the hedge-bank of a deep Devonshire lane I have found fronds of this attractive plant two feet and a half long.

Ranging, as to wideness of distribution, next below the most familiar of the British many-footed' ferns is the Hard Fern (Blechnum spicant), whose hard-looking, glossy fronds justify its common name. The Hard Fern occurs in, at least, ninety-nine out of a hundred ~ and twelve districts, and can scarcely be inaccessible to any one. There is a peculiar and noticeable wiriness about its short frond-stems, and the leafy portion of its barren fronds is pinnatifid after the manner of the Common Polypody, though the lobe-like divisions are much more leathery and are narrower than those of Polypodium vulgare, and they dwindle in size, towards the base of the frond, to tiny leafy protuberances or expansions. There are two kinds of frond, barren and fertile, the fertile ones-bearing on their backs the densely clustered, dark-brown spore-cases-being much taller and, in all ways, more attenuated than the others. No kind of soil, in the damp woods where Blechnum spicant abounds, so well suits this glossy evergreen as leaf-mould with a subsoil of clay or very strong loam,'

which means clay earth; but, oftentimes, it grows in great luxuriance upon the higher parts of steep banks, frequently, too, growing splendidly in woods upon sloping ground over which oozes some stream of water. The especial and favourite habitats of Primroses in many a woodland bottom are also oftentimes those of the Hard Fern. So my garden stream-side was, I knew, the best position for my wild specimens. Along the course of my garden stream I had had placed some big blocks of red sandstone, some in mid streamand around these the water whirled, forming two little channels on either side-and other blocks along the stream-sides. Selecting the shadiest possible position at the bases of the boulders, I had excavated a small space, into which I placed some rather heavy' soil, and upon this my Hard Ferns. The natural soil of the places where these ferns grow to perfection is, as I have already said, much intermixed with clay; and where a plant grows in a clay soil it is always easy to take it up with a consolidated mass around its roots of almost any required size. It is the lightest soils that from their friability cannot without difficulty be gathered compactly around a plant; and however much care be used in the act of removing plant and earth, the latter is continually liable to slip away from the roots. This, however, obviously does not apply to plants on 'clay

soils.' Roots do not travel so quickly, as a rule, through heavy soil, and hence, if Blechnum spicant be taken up with enough earth to include its ultimate rootlets, the supply of soil thus obtained will probably last it for a very long time. My specimens were quite at home beside my garden stream, and always looked fresh and natural.

Still observing my preference for the commonest ferns (to me, I confess, there is a charm in their profusion), I must here give some description of my garden Lady Ferns. Botanists call the Lady Fern, Athyrium filix-foemina, but the common popular designation is very appropriate. It has been recorded in ninety-seven out of a hundred and twelve of the botanical districts of the 'London Catalogue,' and in the dampest of its damp and shady habitats its fronds will grow to a length of five feet. Its greenness and its herbaceous delicacy are amongst its prominent features. The green stipes carries a lance-shaped frond, whose pinnæ or secondary divisions, also lance-shaped and pointed, are again divided into pairs of indented, oblong pinnules. The concave habit of the under-sides of fronds, pinnæ, and pinnules gives prominence to the drooping gracefulness of the Lady Fern. Its being found in the damp bottoms of woods and on stream-sides, frequently in company with the Hard Fern, gives appropriateness, in

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