***Every Book or Publication sent to the Editor will be noticed.

46, PICCADILLY, FEBRUARY, 1849.

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Now ready, in 1 vol. 8vo. half bound, price 30s, thoroughly corrected to this date Debrett's Peerage.

The Rest; an Episode in the Village of Ross Cray.

By the Rev. CLAUDE MAGNAY, M.A., Rector of Medsted, Hants. 1 vol. fcap. 8vo., cloth, elegant, with Border-lines and Illustrations.

The Life of S. Paul.

y the Rev. Dr. BIBER, Vicar of Roehampton. 1 vol. fcap. 8vo., doth.

SOUND WORDSA1112. The

Ine Penny each, or 10 d. per dozen.
Humility.

Simplicity in Dress.

Too Late.

Fugitive King. WI

One Penny each, or 10 d. per 1. The Wreck of the Pegasus. 2. Ann Dale.

3.

Bundle of Sticks.

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TOWN AND COUNTRY MISCELLANY.

JANUARY, 1849.

To Our Readers.

As our readers will be naturally anxious to know in what degree and to what extent the CHURCH WARDER will be affected by the recent change of management, we hasten to lay before them a concise statement of the objects we have in view, and the principles which will be enunciated in these pages.

And, first, we intend that our little periodical shall have a definite mission. It has long been our own conviction, that a magazine, especially iutended for circulation in rural parishes, and carefully prepared with such an object in view, would be the means, under God, of producing an incalculable amount of good. What we ourselves thought has been confirmed over and over again, by the continued enquiries of the Clergy in various parts for some such periodical. Desiring to supply this deficiency, we had already taken preliminary steps for the establishment of a new magazine, which is now no longer necessary.

Intended for circulation among the less educated of our brethren, the style of the several articles will be plain, earnest, and practical. Our pages will henceforth contain short tales and allegories; brief expositions of Holy Scripture, selected from the Fathers, or written by modern divines; biographical sketches; extracts from sources old and new; and characteristic notices of such books, prints, &c., as may be deemed suitable for a Churchman's library, or the school-room.

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The name will still be retained, and the principles of the Church of England honestly and fearlessly maintained. We shall studiously endeavour neither to come short of, nor to go beyond the limit of her teaching. Whatever she teaches, we shall explain and enforce to the best of our power, striving to build our brethren up in the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. But whilst contending for the Faith, we shall let all our deeds be done with charity, and shall therefore make no allusions to the unhappy controversies and sad dissensions that exist both within and without the pale of the Church. Our articles will be of a practical, not of a controversial, character.

Thus much may suffice to show in some measure what we purpose doing, and we can only express a hope that the Clergy will co-operate with us, should they find us worthy of their confidence. We are content to be tried by our deeds, rather than our words. Our pages must speak for themselves, but, as owing to peculiar circumstances, we have been unable to introduce the contemplated changes, we must request them to suspend their judgment until our next number is before them.

BRITISH FERNS.

THE BRITISH FERNS, from their being so common, are held in little estimation; nevertheless, they are very beautiful, and might be made most useful to the farmer in many ways. It is a flowerless plant, with a fibrous root, a vascular stem, nerved leaves, and reticulated cuticle. The Fern has no flowers, and no deposition of real woody fibre; but in its hollow-jointed silicious stems it resembles the grasses. The root of all the native ferns is perennial and fibrous, which are stout, hairy or scaly, and frequently furnished at the extremity with hoods or sheaths. The stem is sometimes smooth and sometimes scaly, but it contains no real wood. The frond, which comprises every part above the ground except the fruit and its appendages, is in its leafy part thin, veiny, and green. The veins do not extend longitudinally through the leaf in any of its species; but they diverge in a forked form from the base of the eaf or from the midrib, which from their uniform size, and the absence of woody fibre, may be more properly called nerves than veins. It is several years before ferns come to maturity; and their essential characters are therefore not always obvious.

The cuticle or skin of the leafy portion of the frond has the appearance of net-work: and the under surface is furnished with respiratory stomata. Most of our botanists maintain that although Ferns have no visible flowers; yet they have some apparatus analogous to stamens. The seeds are small, round, rough grains, and are a mass of cellular substance. A light friable soil, but especially that formed by decayed tree leaves, mosses, or other vegetables is suitable to the roots of most of the different species of ferns: some of them, however, delight in limestone soils, and some of them even grow among rocks.

The operations of human industry have greatly interfered with the natural distribution of British Ferns. Roads, corn-fields, and meadows, even the cutting of peat fuel, and the burning of heath, have driven the Ferns from their natural soils. In many places the Fern is obliged to waste its beauties on hedge banks, loose stone fences, neglected quarries, and on old buildings.

In taste, the fern is bitter, and is never used as an article of food for either man or beast; and even the little insects that devour other herbs, will not partake of the Fern, They are used, however, in medicine, and their nauseous taste renders them efficacious in the expulsion of worms; some of the species have even been successfully used in brewing instead of hops. A decoction of them is also used in the preparation of kid-skins, and other light leather for gloves; and when Ferns are burnt they produce a large proportion of pure potass. When thoroughly dried, they are valuable for the packing of fruit; and make an excellent cover to protect garden plants from frost. Fern also makes an excellent thatch for cottages; and litter for cattle in their stalls. Before the colonization of New Zealand, the native inhabitants made use of the roots of the Fern for food; but now they have substituted the roots and vegetables introduced by their European intruders.

There is a species of Fern called the Aquilina, so called from the fact, that when the stem is eut across near the root, it exhibits the bundles of vessels in the form of a spread eagle, and sometimes of an oak tree. This species is useful for many purposes, as well as for its astringent properties. The deer are very fond of sleeping amongst it, because it is long before it rots, and does not harbour insects; and for the same reason it makes excellent thatch, litter and coverings for plants. In some parts of the kingdom it is used as fuel, especially for heating ovens. It remains dormant more than half the year, the stem and leaves not appearing till about the middle of May, and decaying on the first autumnal frost. In transplanting it, a considerable quantity of its native earth must be taken up along with the roots, else it would assuredly die. A single plant of the Aquilina produces more seed than the mind can conceive;. yet it was formerly thought to be invisible, and to make those also invisible who carry it about them; for in one of Shakespeare's plays he makes Gadshill say ironically, "we have the receipt for Fern seed, we walk invisible."

There is another species of the Fern found in Ireland, and chiefly in the neighbourhood of Killarney, called in plain English the Bristle Fern; the root of which is very thick, black, and densely hairy. In his beautifully illustrated work on Ferns, Mr. Newman