Weatherby: Ferns of the Dolomites 5 



the African porphyry with which the ancient Romans 

 were wont to decorate their temples and baths. This is 

 a siliceous rock, containing very little lime. 



If the name of the "Dolomites Road "is, scientifically, 

 something of a misnomer, no exception can be taken to 

 the scenery which it displays. The first few miles out 



Belluno 



uninteresting 



once in the Ampezzo valley, one enters a region of pecu- 

 liar and distinctive beauty. Smooth green pastured 

 slopes lead up and into forests of larch, above which, in 

 the near distance, tower the bare rock summits of the 

 mountains. They are not orthodox summits: besides 

 tending to a pinky gray color, somewhat frivolous for 

 mountains of their size and probable age, they are strangely 

 splintered and serrated, and fantastic in outline. Their 

 very names — Tofana, Pomogognon, Antelao — are Strang. 

 and as if especially designed to express the singularity 

 of the peaks to which they belong. 



If the traveler is botanically inclined and if, as we did, 

 he avoids the too rapid motor-diligence and travels in 

 the old-fashioned way, by carriage— and still more if, as 

 in our case, his carriage is ballasted with some two hundred 

 and fifty pounds of driver — he will have considerable 

 opportunity, not only to take in the greater features of 

 the landscape, but to observe the abundant and varied 

 vegetation by the way. Our journey was made in June, 

 and our eyes were first caught and long held by the pro- 

 fusion of gaily-colored flowers in the mowing-fields at the 



bottom of the valley. 



When we had somewhat recovered from the impression 



made by their abundance and their very real beauty, we 

 were moved to uneasy reflections by these flowers. For 

 the fields which they completely overrun are evidently 

 hay-fields; and I, at least, had been accustomed to sup- 

 pose that hay should be made of grass. But here it is 



