SEA AND SKY AND WAVING GREEN 
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clothed beneath with rust-coloured scales. By its side a 
goodly specimen of Scolopendrium vulgare, with its leathery 
green, shining fronds, whose simple form show in clear con- 
trast against the elaborate markings of Polystichum cingulate. 
Dividing our garden from the narrow road is an ivy-covered 
wall. Across this road is another wall, sheltered by shrubs, 
and over-shadowed by a beech and an elm, skirting a softly 
sloping upland, the fringe of a private park. As we peep 
out of our window on this northern side we can see but little 
of the sky because of the spreading branches of the trees 
which overshadow us. But we get one large patch of blue, 
and tiny specks of blue also, through the interstices in 
the trees overhead, into which golden rays of sunshine find 
their way, glinting through the leafy apertures and gilding 
the plants and shrubs in the garden. But the soft subdued 
light favours the noble ferny forms which grow amidst their 
gayer companions of the garden. 
From another window of the same room, which in the 
early morning is bathed in sunshine, we look out upon a bed 
of geranium and giant fuchsia, and then upon the green turf 
beyond, bordered by a gravelled walk. Our border hedge is 
fronted by a row of laurels and laurestinas, and overshadowed 
by elms. Beyond the border is a peaceful meadow, surrounded 
by hedges shaded by tall elms. Further away still is a 
stretch of orchard-land rich in promise of golden fruit. 
Beyond again' more trees and fields, with white-walled houses, 
and then the misty blue line of the sea, with, just in our line 
of vision, one white sail like a moth 011 the water. 
Leaving the house and passing through a tiny orchard in its 
rear, we take a turning to the right and at once find ourselves 
in a green lane, overshadowed by hedges, whose sides are 
clothed with trailing ivy, grass, the leafy tendrils of the wild 
strawberry, and other trailing plants, whilst it is topped with 
the closely-set, branches of nut-bush and hawthorn which 
