30 
THE FERN WORLD 
ning water ; where great woods fling their shadows upon the 
hillside, and hang darkly over stream-crossed valleys ; where 
rivers, wandering over the crests of towering rocks, and 
leaping from the sunlight, fall foaming into dark pools, 
bristling below with sharp points of stone, to be carried 
thence, in fury, down steep inclines to the sea ; where for 
long miles the landscape undulates into heathery waves, 
broken by clumps of gorse on rocky mounds, sheltered by 
prickly hawthorn or trailing sprays of blackberry ; where 
undulating meadows, cleft into many a sheltered hollow, roll 
gracefully away as far as the eye can reach ; where storm- 
tossed waves roar upon the rugged points of a rocky coast, 
and echo into many a cavernous hollow moist with the per- 
petual droppings of percolating water ; where, in short, 
mountain and valley or hill and glen commingle ; and tower- 
ing rocks or stately woods, jutting knolls and arching branches 
play with sunshine and shadow and caress the sides of run- 
ning streams, whose sparkling waters give birth to soft, moist 
vapours. 
Enough has been said to show that Ferns delight in moist 
and shady places, and, thoroughly in keeping with their soft 
and graceful habit, they love light and porous soils where 
their roots can keep free from stagnancy. On shady slopes 
and modest elevations they mostly like to dwell. Fibrous 
peat and sand, and the spongy mould of fallen leaves, form 
soils in which these plants delight. Through such soils 
water always percolates freely ; for stagnant moisture is fatal 
to Fern life. Hence the sloping sides of a mound or hedge- 
bank ; the crest and sides of rocky elevations; the forks of 
trees where leaf mould has accumulated ; the shaded margins 
of running brooks or larger streams; the moist caverns in 
the sides of cliffs above the tide-mark; the mossy crests of 
islets in mid-stream; the sloping, sheltered lull-sides; even 
the moister hollows of the plain, and the broken depths of 
