Part 22 (1/2)

There is an old proverb:--”When gorse is out of blossom, kissing is out of fas.h.i.+on”--that is _never_. The gorse blooms all the year.

FERN.

I'll seek the s.h.a.ggy fern-clad hill And watch, 'mid murmurs muttering stern, The seed departing from the fern Ere wakeful demons can convey The wonder-working charm away.

_Leyden_.

”The green and graceful Fern” (_filices_) with its exquisite tracery must not be overlooked. It recalls many n.o.ble home-scenes to British eyes. Pliny says that ”of ferns there are two kinds, and they bear neither flowers nor seed.” And this erroneous notion of the fern bearing no seed was common amongst the English even so late as the time of Addison who ridicules ”a Doctor that had arrived at the knowledge of the green and red dragon, _and had discovered the female fern-seed_.” The seed is very minute and might easily escape a careless eye. In the present day every one knows that the seed of the fern lies on the under side of the leaves, and a single leaf will often bear some millions of seeds. Even those amongst the vulgar who believed the plant bore seed, had an idea that the seeds were visible only at certain mysterious seasons and to favored individuals who by carrying a quant.i.ty of it on their person, were able, like those who wore the helmet of Pluto or the ring of Gyges, to walk unseen amidst a crowd. The seed was supposed to be best seen at a certain hour of the night on which St. John the Baptist was born.

We have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk invisible,

_Shakespeare's Henry IV. Part I_.

In Beaumont's and Fletcher's _Fair Maid of the Inn_, is the following allusion to the fern.

--Had you Gyges' ring, _Or the herb that gives invisibility_.

Ben Jonson makes a similar allusion to it:

I had No medicine, sir, to go invisible, _No fern-seed in my pocket_.

Pope puts a branch of spleen-wort, a species of fern, (_Asplenium trichomanes_) into the hand of a gnome as a protection from evil influences in the Cave of Spleen.

Safe pa.s.sed the gnome through this fantastic band A branch of healing spleen-wort in his hand.

The fern forms a splendid ornament for shadowy nooks and grottoes, or fragments of ruins, or heaps of stones, or the odd corners of a large garden or pleasure-ground.

I have had many delightful a.s.sociations with this plant both at home and abroad. When I visited the beautiful Island of Penang, Sir William Norris, then the Recorder of the Island, and who was a most indefatigable collector of ferns, obligingly presented me with a specimen of every variety that he had discovered in the hills and vallies of that small paradise; and I suppose that in no part of the world could a finer collection of specimens of the fern be made for a botanist's _herbarium_. Fern leaves will look almost as well ten years after they are gathered as on the day on which they are transferred from the dewy hillside to the dry pages of a book.

Jersey and Penang are the two loveliest islands on a small scale that I have yet seen: the latter is the most romantic of the two and has n.o.bler trees and a richer soil and a brighter sky--but they are both charming retreats for the lovers of peace and nature. As I have devoted some verses to Jersey I must have some also on

THE ISLAND OF PENANG.

I.

I stand upon the mountain's brow-- I drink the cool fresh, mountain breeze-- I see thy little town below,[090]

Thy villas, hedge-rows, fields and trees, And hail thee with exultant glow, GEM OF THE ORIENTAL SEAS!

II.

A cloud had settled on my heart-- My frame had borne perpetual pain-- I yearned and panted to depart From dread Bengala's sultry plain-- Fate smiled,--Disease withholds his dart-- I breathe the breath of life again!

III.

With lightened heart, elastic tread, Almost with youth's rekindled flame, I roam where loveliest scenes outspread Raise thoughts and visions none could name, Save those on whom the Muses shed A spell, a dower of deathless fame.

IV.

I _feel_, but oh! could ne'er _pourtray_, Sweet Isle! thy charms of land and wave, The bowers that own no winter day, The brooks where timid wild birds lave, The forest hills where insects gay[091]

Mimic the music of the brave!

V.