136 BLUEFIELDS RIDGE. 



victims as they pass, and, wheeling round, return 

 again and again to the prey. 



But if I were asked to name the most prominent 

 character of the vegetation on these lofty peaks, I 

 should designate it a region of Ferns. Scores of 

 species, and thousands of individuals, fringe the sides 

 of the path with their graceful fronds, and almost 

 choke the way. If we sit down on the grey-spurred 

 root of a tree, the great fronds of Phlehod'mm aurewriy 

 so elegantly pinnate, arch over our heads, and spread 

 widely on each side ; while the eye is pleased with 

 its massive twisted leaf-bases, covered with golden 

 hair that shines like silk, and with the brown, de- 

 licate, thread-like roots, that cling to the bark of the 

 tree spur, meandering over it like a spider's web. 

 The large triangular pinnae of Adiantum macrophyl- 

 lum overlapping each other, and gradually diminish- 

 ing, have a very striking appearance ; and many of 

 the minuter kinds growing in the hollows of the 

 stones, and beneath the roots of the trees, display a 

 grace and beauty peculiarly their own. Within the 

 gloom of the forest other forms are seen in luxuriant 

 profusion. The trees are loaded with them : many 

 of the terrestrial kinds spring in feathery tufts from 

 the crevices of the bark, and curve gracefully towards 

 the ground ; others fringe the horizontal limbs, and 

 conceal the forks ; and others, perhaps the most 

 curious of all, as Phlehodium lycopodoides, Ph. vac- 

 cinifolium, Polypodium acrostichoides, &c., crawl up 

 the trunks of the tall trees, from the earth to their 

 summits ; their lengthened slender stems clinging 

 fast to the bark, fringed, throughout all their irre- 



