110 ABOUT A FERN. [CHAP. 
from all parts of our sloping lane; here, from every 
space between the thin flakes of rock, the dark-green 
shining fronds of the Black Maidenhair Spleenwort, 
supported by their long wiry black or purple stipides, 
crow up towards the light, almost hiding the wall on 
which it grows. If we could only transport a dozen 
yards of such a wall, with its ferny occupants intact, 
to our garden in the suburbs of the Metropolis! 
With descriptions of the natural ferneries of North 
Devon, Mr. F. G. Heath has made us familiar in his 
~ books, “ The Fern Paradise” and “ The Fern World.” 
Here is a quotation from the latter work :-— 
“Under overarching trees, which throw the path 
into cool shadow, we wind round and round, de- 
scending as we go. On our right there is a sloping 
tree-covered bank, dotted with shuttlecock shapes of 
Fern; on the left a high bank, richly clothed with 
grass and Fern, and crowned with trees which spread 
their fresh-green branches over the road. For some 
little way the character of the.scenery remains the 
same, but in a few moments we come upon a bend 
in the road round to the left. Turning round this 
bend, a gap in the leafy curtain on the right affords 
us a prospect which compels us to pause. Away just 
in front as we turn to the right, two hills, densely 
clothed with a dark mantle of trees, sweep down into 
a combe. Their sides interlace midway, but the 
deepest part of the combe is hidden from view. 
Over the point where the hills intersect each other 
we get a peep of the sea. As the eye passes midway 
across the bosky side of the hill to the left we sight 
a cliff rising sheer from the sea, and in the foreground 
