THE FANTASIES OF FERNS 1 95 



sun. Out in this open place, adding strange tints 

 to the tawny marsh colors and the whites of An- 

 gelica and Colic Root, are masses of Brakes, Cin- 

 namon, and Royal Ferns, still growing bravely, even 

 though their seared tops are constantly drying away 

 and calling upon the roots for renewal. And these 

 sturdy roots, can you reach them by any moderate 

 digging ? No ; deeper and deeper they have crept 

 for self -protection, and to supply the juices de- 

 manded of them by their unaccustomed situation. 



As you leave the larger Ferns by the water and 

 look up the bank from the river to the mountain- 

 side, Ferns, and Ferns only, fill the eye, but of a 

 wholly different character, not waving and droop- 

 ing in languid succulence, but smaller, more rigid 

 and leathery, of a deeper color, the distinct round 

 fruit -dots following the veins on the leaf -back, 

 in short, the Common Rock Fern or Polypody, 

 which carpets with cheerful evergreen fronds the 

 rocks that are piled step -like up the slope, tier upon 

 tier, as far as eye can see. The Polypody has 

 slender, creeping roots, that bind the plants to- 

 gether, as they almost hang over the ledges, like 

 mountain climbers held from falling by a retaining 

 rope. They decorate decaying tree trunks, when- 



