SOME HUMBLE ORCHIDS 



153 



is fantastically trimmed with Lichens and fungus 

 growths. 



This ridge, or "the mountain," as the hillside 

 folk call it, is reached by the Tree -bridge, a 

 Chestnut trunk hewn level on one side 

 and thrown across the narrow mouth of 

 the ravine through 

 which the river flows. 



The first impres- 

 sion on entering the 

 wood, to which the 

 bridge is the only pass 

 across the river, is 

 that it is the realm 

 of Ferns alone. 

 Flower Hat dropped 

 quickly upon the near- 

 est rock, and resting 

 backward on one 

 hand, declared: 



"I thought the 

 meadows were dazzling enough, but here I posi- 

 tively can distinguish nothing. It seems like surg- 

 ing waves of green, breaking over a coast of green 

 rocks, with green spray rising in the air." 



