124 
THE FERN WORLD 
the glen is shut in l>y another wood-crowned hill, along the 
base of which rolls the East Lyn, winding, falling, foaming, 
and roaring over its great moss-covered boulders on its way 
to the sea. Between us and the river’s edge runs an open, 
grassy, ferny bank. As we follow the route to Lvnmouth, 
the river now recedes away to our right, behind a small 
thicket of trees, and then winds round to meet us again, 
being only separated from us by a Bracken-covered bank. 
Now there is a rapid bill in the river, whilst our road at 
the same time ascends, and we pass slate-rock banks on our 
left, their surface bare in places, but topped picturesquely 
with moss and Brake, grass, ivy, and wild flowers in varying 
hues of purple and yellow, pink and white. Away above 
these flowery tufts the hill is clothed with graceful clusters 
of tall and waving Bracken, some waving freely in the wind 
on the open hill-side, others snugly ensconced under the 
shelter of tall shrubs. On the opposite side of our path the 
river bank, sloping downwards, is covered with intermingled 
fronds of Lady Fern, Male Fern, and Brake, overtopping 
the tall, thin grass. A dense thicket of oaks overshadows 
this bank, the branches of the trees next the river being 
flung across the stream, where they mingle their twigs with 
those of the trees on the opposite bank. Under the shadow 
of twisted twigs the stream roars and splashes, foaming still 
over mossy boulders, some so big as to form mossy islets 
ornamented with graceful Fern fronds. Above the river’s 
brink the woody hill rises steeply to the sky, speckled with 
misty clouds. 
As the stream falls lower — shining brightly where the 
glinting sun-rays peep in through the branches overhead, 
and then foaming and roaring as it seethes and boils in its 
bed below — its bank also falls more steeply to the water’s 
edge, where lies a grassy plateau with a great wealth of 
Brake. On the left of our path, too, the shelving slate-rock 
