The ferns of Great Britain and their allies, the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails / by Anne Pratt ; published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

  • Anne Pratt
Date:
[1871]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ferns of Great Britain and their allies, the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails / by Anne Pratt ; published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    call this fern Le Poh/pode; the Germans, J)cr Tipfd- farren. Tt is the Boomvaren of the Dutch, the Polepodio of the Spaniard and Italian, and is known in Russia by the name of Oaolcor. 2. P. PJiepdpieris (Beech Fern).—Fronds pinnate, the pinnae united at the base and pinnatifid, the loAvest ])air turned downwards, and all the rest upwards; fructification marginal. This very beautiful plant is called, also, Sun Fern and Mountain Fern. It has a preference for mountainous localities, where it often occurs at a great elevation, and it grows also in shady rocky woods. Though a local plant, it is often abundant on particular spots. It is more frequent in Scotland than in England, and is rare in Ireland. It is found in the northern, western, and southern counties of England, but is unknown in the midland and some of the eastern counties. It flourishes particularly near waterfalls; by the Falls of Lodorc, celebrated both for their pic- turesque beauty, and for the singular rhymes which Southey composed on their rushing waters, this fern is one of the most graceful and lovely objects, springing up from among the rich green mosses which surround it, and its pale green hairy fronds sometimes glistening with drops of the spray dashed from the hill. It is a common fern in Cumberland, growing on the very sum- mits of some of the mountains. It has no just claim to its common name of Beech Fern ; for, though found in moist, wooded places, it does not hang from the branches of that noble tree, but its brown root-stocks creep over the damp rock, or among the scattered leaves. The frond rises in May, and may be found in fructification