CHAPTER IV. 
A FERN VALLEY. 
There is a wide field before the enthusiastic lover of Nature 
for the indulgence of a passion for Fern culture, if consi- 
derations of cost do not stand in the way. What, for 
instance, could be more delightful, where the necessary 
expenditure could be freely undertaken, than the creation 
under glass of a Fern valley ? Given a natural valley or 
gorge between parallel hills, and why might not the space 
from hill to hill be roofed with crystal, the roof supported at 
each end with pillars of stone with glass between ? Under 
such a covering, even if the natural features of the site were 
not of a nature to provide a home for Ferns, masses of rock 
and a stream of water could be introduced, and, by a proper 
regulation of the temperature, the most delicate and beauti- 
ful as well as the most noble of the cryptogamic growths of 
the tropics would flourish, and a little fern world of wondrous 
beauty might be created. On the estates of the wealthy in 
numerous parts of these islands there is many a rocky glen 
or valley where the experiment could be tried. If through 
the course of such a valley, to be thus domed with glass, a 
natural stream wound its way, on each side tree Ferns could 
be planted. On its margins the larger species of herbaceous 
Ferns might be gathered, and so disposed as almost to hide 
the streamlet’s course under a wealth of glorious fronds. 
Massed up rocks, too, on each side of a rude pathway, 
running parallel with the watercourse on either margin, might 
