THE FANTASIES OF FERNS 1 97 



ing and turning about slowly in this enchanted 

 place one finds Fern pictures crowding in on every 

 side. At the feet group the dull, dark green, once- 

 divided fronds of the Evergreen Wood Fern, grow- 

 ing from six inches to almost two feet in length. 

 The stems are covered with chaff where they join 

 the root, and the round spore -cases follow the frond 

 edges, on the underside as Fern rule orders. 



Away toward the left, where the sky-line shows 

 through the trees, a bed of clean -washed Christmas 

 Ferns spreads its enameled, feather -divided leafage 

 about the trunk of a Beech, the sifting light 

 catching and reflecting upon the glossy leaves as 

 on a mirror. 



Above Tree Bridge the woods have the double 

 quality of being both wet and dry. By this I mean 

 that the soil is never boggy, being made of lightest 

 leaf-mold, and yet the moisture follows the mass 

 of rocks, and rising from the river, is condensed in 

 such abundance that, to the eye at least, nothing 

 ever seems dry. 



Once above the abrupt, rocky slope, there is a 

 stretch of rolling, high -shaded wood, which rises 

 gradually, to be divided by a lane road that winds 

 through alternate wood and wild meadow in what 

 is called the Den District. 



