90 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
and above, arching Brakes and Male Ferns spread 
out and over you their graceful fronds. 
Once more the scene changes. Still swiftly 
descending, you pass a wood on your left, and 
then the lane again opens out. The pathway 
narrows, but the hedge-banks slope outwards, 
affording space for the most graceful development 
of the ferns which grow shuttlecock fashion on 
the sloping banks. Here, in the full daylight, you 
can see and admire the varying shades of glorious 
green which the fern-fronds wear ; the dark green 
of full grown Brakes contrasting, for instance, 
with the lighter shade of the incipient fronds, or 
with their own golden-green tips. 
Again, for a moment, on its way down the 
hill-side, the lane opens up a prospect of the 
richly-clothed valley which you are now nearing 
once more. On your right, below the hedge-bank 
— over the open top of which you can peer-— a 
meadow runs steeply down to a point where it is 
met on each side by two gracefully sloping uplands, 
beautifully though sparingly wooded. From the 
point of junction of meadow and upland the ground, 
