6o 



hunting, and as she was passing on, he had perforce to call" 



her attention to it, and she never forgavehim. The B. P. S» 



was, however, kinder. 



C. T. D. 



THE DECORATIVE VALUE OF OUR 

 NATIVE FERNS.^I.- 



The importance of British ferns for purposes of decoration 

 is derived from two distinct but highly valuable qualities, 

 which many of them possess. They luxuriate in places 

 where little else will grow, and they attain — in the case of 

 the finer varieties — to a beauty of form which is not easily 

 rivalled. The conditions which ferns demand will be best 

 realised by passing in review some of their typical haunts. 

 Not far from the town of Sligo is a remark-able glen, as it 

 is termed, but chasm would be the more suitable word ; 

 for a distance of some three-quarters of a mile the limestone 

 formation has opened, and the result is a cleft whose sides 

 sink, often perpendicularly, to a depth, at the deepest parts^ 

 of as much as 40 ft., while the width is only about 30 ft. 

 From end to end the glen abounds in the most wonderful 

 specimens of the Hartstongue Fern (Scolopendrimn vulgaye} 

 that it has ever been my lot to see. Along the bottom they 

 grow so close together that, except upon the central path, 

 it is difficult to stir without crushing them under foot ; and 

 up the sides they climb, making every ledge their own, and 

 adorning the whole with a varied wealth of green which is 

 almost magical. Here, in addition to the limestone — 

 which is a great help, though not a necessity — we find two 

 pronounced features, shelter and moisture, and the moisture 

 is of the right kind. With the help of the general con- 

 formation, and the trees by which it is supplemented, the 

 ferns have got for themselves a home where no rude breezes 

 come and where the sun's rays are subdued. They have 

 also got the moisture which they crave; the drip and trickle 

 from innumerable springs finds its way gently down the 



■''^ Reprinted by permission of ''Tlie Guardian." 



