42 VOICES FEOM THE WOODLANDS. 



clusters around the stone-work of old wells, where chil- 

 dren play, our brother the oak- or wood-fern, the most 

 elegant among his tribe, is almost exclusively confined to 

 wild and mountainous districts, and shuns the vicinity even 

 of a solitary cottage ? His haunts are places shaded by high 

 rocks or thick foliage, where his black, wiry, and often 

 creeping roots form not unfrequently a dense mass resem- 

 bling net-work. Gather intruction, as the poet said, even 

 from way-side weeds. The reason of this is obvious. 

 Because in no locality, however lone, may this graceful 

 tribe be wanting, either to beautify some sterile growing- 

 place, or to afford a home to such small winged or creeping 

 insects as nestle beneath their leaves. Hence, also, the 

 brittle fern, that affects moist or mountainous districts, 

 rooting in the fissures of rocks or the crevices of old walls, 

 seems especially to delight in bridges, where it speedily 

 becomes established, and looks down on the waters as 

 they flow beneath. 



The common polypody does, indeed, hang profusely, 



