THE FERN PARADISE. 



little fronds. It lias a great love for rotten stone 

 and mortar, and is often found growing on the 

 sides of houses. It is a very hardy little Fern, 

 and will thrive in the sunshine, but most loves 

 moist and sheltered nooks. 



Growing by the side of the Wall Rue is the 

 beautiful Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium tri- 

 cliomanes). Its fibrous wiry rootlets insinuate 

 themselves into the crevices between the stones, 

 and its crown throws up a dense mass of 

 exquisite little fronds, with stems like shining 

 black hairs, and with little bright-green, round, 

 saw-edged leaflets alternately placed on each 

 side of the stems, along the greater part of 

 their length. 



Following the downward course of the lane we 

 come, in the most cool, damp, and shady places, 

 upon numbers of the Lady Fern (Atkyrium filix- 

 fcemina), perhaps the most graceful of the larger 

 British Ferns. Its drooping feathery fronds are 

 indeed, when finely grown, extremely beautiful, 

 and the entire plant forms the most conspicuous 

 ornament of the places in which it delights to 

 grow. It throws up its fronds oftentimes in 



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