WILDWOOD WAYS 



From your feet to the foot of the hill in 

 this direction it was winter indeed. Yet 

 here was the greenest spot in the whole 

 range. Scrambling perilously down the 

 face of the cliff I touched rich green veg- 

 etation with either hand and stood amid 

 luxuriance at the bottom. For here you 

 are at the meeting place of ferns. 



Little sunshine reaches the face of this 

 cliff in the high noon of a midsummer 

 day. No direct ray touches it all winter 

 long, yet in the chill twilight the poly- 

 podys swarm all along the summit of the 

 ridge and drip and dance down and 

 stretch out their hands to neighbor ferns 

 that climb cheerily to meet them out of 

 'the moist shadows below. These are the 

 evergreen wood ferns. In the rich black 

 frozen earth of the lower woodland they 

 grow in profusion. On the rocky accliv- 

 ity they hold each coign of vantage and 

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