10 The Fern Garden. 



at home when you have planted them in the garden. 

 Some thrive on perpendicular walls of stone and brick, 

 others in the moist woodland shade, others on the bleak 

 mountain top, and many a glorious group may be 

 found on the sides and roofs of caverns, which they 

 make like fairy palaces with their green feathery 

 plumes and golden dottings of mysterious fruit. 

 However many lessons you may learn of the habits of 

 the several kinds of ferns, there should be one lesson 

 impressed upon your mind more deeply than any — it 

 is this, that, much as they love moisture, it is a most 

 rare thing to see a fern growing with its roots naturally 

 in water. When they congregate, as it were, to drink 

 of the brook that passes by, they keep their feet clear 

 away from the current, and lodge safely on the' slopes 

 that dip towards the water; or stand proudly upon 

 little islets that compel the stream to sing as it passes 

 them ; or on banks and hummocks round about where 

 they can enjoy the tiny splashes the trout make when 

 they leap for flies, and the soft nourishing vapour that 

 rises day and night amongst their shining fronds. 

 Yes, it is upon slopes mostly that ferns love to grow ; 

 in places where water rarely lodges, but where moisture 

 is abundant, and there is some shade against the noon- 

 day summer sun. Note all you see of the whereabouts 

 and ways of your favorites, and you will find that 

 there is a better book on fern-growing than the one 

 you are now reading — it is the Book of Nature. 



