66 
THE FERN WORLD 
to those who might possess the means of indulging a taste 
for Fern culture on such a scale. 
Nature in the Fern world, though she can provide no 
covering of glass, often furnishes from the tops of opposing 
ferny banks a canopy of trees and shrubs, formed by arching 
branches, under which moisture is promoted and encouraged 
in a degree which largely develops the cryptogamic life 
which lies in the sheltered hollow beneath the friendly 
shelter thus extemporized. 
